inion, I think there is no
dispute in the matter--because, by Cot! it occurs to me, d'ye see, that
ye are both right, by Cot! It may do fery well for my excellent friend
Sir Bingo, who hath stables, and kennels, and what not, to maintain the
six filthy prutes that are yelping and yowling all the tay, and all the
neight too, under my window, by Cot!--And if they are yelping and
yowling there, may I never die but I wish they were yelping and yowling
somewhere else. But then there is many a man who may be as cood a
gentleman at the bottom as my worthy friend Sir Bingo, though it may be
that he is poor; and if he is poor--and as if it might be my own case,
or that of this honest gentleman, Mr. Tirl--is that a reason or a law,
that he is not to keep a prute of a tog, to help him to take his sports
and his pleasures? and if he has not a stable or a kennel to put the
crature into, must he not keep it in his pit of ped-room, or upon his
parlour hearth, seeing that Luckie Dods would make the kitchen too hot
for the paist--and so, if Mr. Tirl finds a setter more fitter for his
purpose than a pointer, by Cot, I know no law against it, else may I
never die the black death."

If this oration appear rather long for the occasion, the reader must
recollect that Captain MacTurk had in all probability the trouble of
translating it from the periphrastic language of Ossian, in which it was
originally conceived in his own mind.

The Man of Law replied to the Man of Peace, "Ye are mistaken for ance in
your life, Captain, for there is a law against setters; and I will
undertake to prove them to be the 'lying dogs,' which are mentioned in
the auld Scots statute, and which all and sundry are discharged to keep,
under a penalty of"----

Here the Captain broke in, with a very solemn mien and dignified
manner--"By Cot! Master Meiklewham, and I shall be asking what you mean
by talking to me of peing mistaken, and apout lying togs, sir--because I
would have you to know, and to pelieve, and to very well consider, that
I never was mistaken in my life, sir, unless it was when I took you for
a gentleman."

"No offence, Captain," said Mr. Meiklewham; "dinna break the wand of
peace, man, you that should be the first to keep it.--He is as
cankered," continued the Man of Law, apart to his patron, "as an auld
Hieland terrier, that snaps at whatever comes near it--but I tell you ae
thing, St. Ronan's, and that is on saul and conscience, that I believe
th