ok hands with them both;
and, in my thoughtlessness, wished them "a good journey,"--knowing well
what a sorrowful home-going it would be to them, and what their bairns
would think when they saw what was lying in the cart beside their mother.
On this the big ploughman, that wore a broad blue bonnet and corduroy
cutikins, with a grey big-coat slit up behind in the manner I commonly
made for laddies, gave his long whip a crack, and drove off to the
eastward.

It would be needless in me to waste precious time in relating how I
returned to my own country, especially as I may be thankful that nothing
particular happened, excepting the coach-wheels riding over an old dog
that was lying sleeping on the middle of the road, and, poor brute,
nearly got one of his fore-paws chacked off. The day was sharp and
frosty, and all the passengers took a loup off at a yill-house, with a
Highland-man on the sign of it, to get a dram, to gar them bear up
against the cold; yet knowing what had but so lately happened, and having
the fears of Maister Wiggie before my eyes, I had made a solemn vow
within myself, not to taste liquor for six months at least; nor would I
here break my word, tho' much made a fool of by an Englisher, and a fou
Eirisher, who sang all the road; contenting myself, in the best way I
could, with a tumbler of strong beer and two butter-bakes.

It is an old proverb, and a true one, that there is no rest to the
wicked; so when I got home, I found business crying out for me loudly,
having been twice wanted to take the measure for suits of clothes. Of
course, knowing that my two customers would be wearying, I immediately
cut my stick to their houses, and promised without fail to have my work
done against the next Sabbath. Whether from my hurry, or my grief for
poor Mungo, or maybe from both, I found on the Saturday night, when the
clothes were sent home on the arm of Tammie Bodkin, whom I was obliged to
hire by way of foresman, that some awful mistake had occurred--the dress
of the one having been made for the back of the other, the one being long
and tall, the other thick and short; so that Maister Peter Pole's cuffs
did not reach above half-way down his arms, and the tails ended at the
small of the back, rendering him a perfect fright; while Maister Watty
Firkin's new coat hung on him like a dreadnought, the sleeves coming over
the nebs of his fingers, and the hainch buttons hanging down between his
heels, making him rese