round for his money at the appointed time,
and I paid him accordingly, and got a line off his hand in acknowledgment.
On that very day, and just about an hour after he had left, Nancy says to
me--'Nicholas, I dinna owre and aboon like that man that ye hae been
dealing wi' the day. He has owre muckle gab, and scraping, and bowing for
me. I wish he may be honest. Have ye got a receipt from him?'

"'Certainly,' says I; 'do ye think I would pay onybody money without one?'

"'And I hope it is on a stamp,' said she.

"'A stamp!' quoth I--'a stamp!--hoots, woman! I wonder to see ye so
suspicious. Ye dinna tak a' the world to be rogues?'

"'No,' said she, 'I do not, and I should be sorry if I did; but if ye hae
taken a receipt from him without a stamp, ye are a simple man--that is all
that I say.'

'A simple man!' cried I; 'gracious! what does the woman mean? Ye are for
ever saying that I am simple this, and simple that! I wish that ye would
explain yoursel, and say what ye wish to be after! Where, or how am I
simple?'

"'It's not been one lesson that you've had, Nicholas,' said she, 'nor ten,
nor twenty either, but it is every week, I may say every day, wi' ye. There
is perpetually some person or another showing ye that the 'simple man is
the beggar's brother,' and ye canna see it, or ye winna regard it. But ye
will, perhaps, be brought to think on't, when neither your bairns nor me
have a stool to sit upon.'

"'Woman!' exclaimed I, 'flesh and blood cannot stand your tongue! Ye would
exasperate the patience o' Job! What is it that ye wish to be after?--what
would ye have me to do?'

"'Oh, it is o' nae use getting into a passion about it,' said she, 'for
that winna mend the matter. But there is only this in it, Nicholas: I would
have ye to be as sharp in your dealings in the world, as ye are wi' me when
I happen to speak a word to ye for your good.'

"There was so much truth in what she said, and she always spoke in such a
calm, good-natured manner that it was impossible to continue to be in a
passion wi' her. So I said no more about the subject; but I thought to
mysel', that, as I knew very little about the man I had dealt with, it
would hae been quite as safe to have had the receipt upon a stamp.

"A few months afterwards, I saw his name amongst the list o' bankrupts; and
to my very great astonishment, I received a letter from a writer, demanding
payment from me o' the ninety pounds for the flax which I had already