m. I'll
lat Bandy Wobster awa' wi't, 'cause he's no' near wyse, an' he's an'
objeck a'ready."

Juist at this meenit Mistress Kenawee cries up the stair, "Are you
there, Bawbie?" an' I had to rin doon. I tell'd them Sandy was hame a'
richt. Dauvid wantit to see him. But, na na! I keepit what I kent o'
Sandy's story to mysel'; an', puir cratur, I was raley sorry for him.
He gaed aboot a' Sabbath rale dementit like; an', i' the efternune, I
cam' in upon him i' the back shop dancin' on the tap o' a seek o' caff,
an' sayin', "Ye'll poach neen this winter, ye----" an' so on.

Atween you an' me, it'll no' be a bawbee's-wirth o' stickin' plester
that'll sair Pottie if Sandy gets his fingers ower him.

"Ay, you cam' in withoot chappin' on Setarday nicht, Sandy," I says,
says I, at brakfast time on Munanday mornin', 'cause I saw fine he
wantit to speak aboot it.

"I'll do the chappin' when I get a grab o' Pottie Lawson," says Sandy.
"But I'll tell you this, Bawbie; when I was jookin' alang by the
roppie, tryin' to get hame, it's as fac's ocht, I thocht twa-three
times o' gaen plunk in amon' the water, an' makin' a feenish o't. I
was that angry an' ashamed. But, man, I ran up throo the yairds,
without onybody seein's, an' got in at the skylicht. I'll swag,
Bawbie, I never was gledder than when I cam' cloit doon on my hurdies
on the garret flure. But, as Rob Roy says, there's a day o' rekinin';
an', by faigs, there'll be some fowk 'ill get the stoor taen oot o'
their jeckits when it comes roond, or my name's no Si Bowden!"

XIX.

SANDY REVENGED.

I was tellin' ye aboot Sandy's caper oot the Sands, when Bandy an'
Pottie Lawson made sic a fule o' him. We'd never seen hint nor hair o'
them here sin' syne; an' I'm shure they're a gude reddance. But wha
shud turn up i' the washin'-hoose the ither nicht but Pottie! He'd
gotten Dauvid Kenawee to speak to Sandy, an' gotten the thing sowdered
up some wey or ither, an' there he was again, as brisk as a bee. But
Sandy wasna that easy pacifeed. He didna say muckle, but I'll swag he
gey Pottie a neg on Teysday nicht that he'll no forget in a
hurry--nether will Mistress Mollison.

Mind ye, I didna think Sandy was so deep. It was a gey trick. Sandy
was determined to pey aff Pottie in his ain coin, an' he had gotten
Bandy Wobster to kollig wi' him to gie Lawson a richt fleg.

There was a big meetin' i' the washin'-hoose nae farrer gane than lest
nicht; an' efter a