pockets
with _sweeties_ and gingerbread, and paying innumerable compliments
to her beauty the while; and poor Nelly apprehended nothing less
than the loss of every particle of that influence which she had some
reason for supposing she now possessed over him. In this dilemma,
she resolved to accompany him to the scene of action, and there to
watch the revolutions of the wheel of fortune, if peradventure
anything in her favour might turn up.

"Jock," said she, on the evening previous to the important day, "I'm
gaun wi' ye to the market, and ye maun gie me my market-fare."

At this announcement Jock scratched his head, looked demure for a
little, and appeared as though he would have preferred solitude to
society in the proposed expedition. But he could find no excuse for
declining the honour thus intended him. He recollected, moreover,
that, as he had been the better for Nelly's care in time past, so her
future favour was essential to his future comfort, and that it would
be prejudicial in the last degree to his interest to offend her. After
having thought of these things, in a time infinitely shorter than that
in which they can be spoken of, Jock sagely determined to yield to
"necessity," which, according to the common proverb, "has no law." He
also determined to watch the revolutions of the wheel of fortune, in
the hope that his own case might come uppermost. But, for the present
putting on as good a grace as he could, "Aweel, aweel, Nelly," said
he, "I'll be unco glad o' your company; for to say, the truth, I dinna
like very weel to gang through the glen my lane. If it hadna been for
you, the feint a _fit_ would have been at my stockings langsyne; and
as ye aye darned them, and mendit the knees o' my breeks, and the
elbows o' my coat forby, it would be ill o' my pairt no to gie you
your market-fare. Sae we can e'en gang thegither; and if we dinna lose
ither i' the thrang, I'll maybe get you to come owre the hill wi' at
nicht."

"Mind noo ye've promised," said Nelly, highly pleased with the
reception her proposal had met;--"mind ye've promised to come hame wi'
me; and there's no ane in a' the warld I would like sae weel to come
hame wi' as our ain Jock."

"I'll mind that," said Jock. But, notwithstanding what he said, he had
no intention of coming home with Nelly; his thoughts ran in another
direction; he had merely spoken of the thing because he fancied it
would _please_; the idea of her presence, as matters now st