nt he and his master together;
me standing at our close mouth, wishing them a good-morning, and blithe
to see their backs. Indeed, a condemned thief with the rope about his
neck, and the white cowl tied over his eyes, to say nothing of his hands
yerked together behind his back, and on the nick of being thrown over,
could not have been more thankful for a reprieve than I was, at the same
blessed moment. It was like Adam seeing the deil's rear marching out of
Paradise, if one may be allowed to think such a thing.

The whole business, tag-rag and bob-tail, soon, however, spunked out, and
was the town talk for more than one day.--But you'll hear.

At the first I pitied the poor lads, that I thought had fled for ever and
aye from their native country, to Bengal, Seringapatam, Copenhagen,
Botany Bay, or Jamaica, leaving behind them all their friends and old
Scotland, as they might never hear of the goodness of Providence in their
behalf. But wait a wee.

Would you believe it? As sure's death, the whole was but a wicked trick
played by that mischievous loon Blister and his cronies, upon one that
was a simple and soft-headed callant. De'il a hait was in the one pistol
but a pluff of powder; and in the other, a cartridge-paper, full of
blood, was rammed down upon the charge; the which, hitting Magneezhy on
the ee-bree, had caused a business that seemed to have put him out of
life, and nearly put me (though one of the volunteers) out of my seven
senses.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN--MANSIE WAUCH--HIS FIRST AND LAST PLAY

The time of Tammie Bodkin's apprenticeship being nearly worn through, it
behoved me, as a man attentive to business, and the interests of my
family, to cast my eyes around me in search of a callant to fill his
place; as it is customary in our trade for young men, when their time is
out, taking a year's journeymanship in Edinburgh, to perfect them in the
more intricate branches of the business, and learn the newest manner of
the French and London fashions, by cutting cloth for the young advocates,
the college students, the banking-house clerks, the half-pay ensigns, and
the rest of the principal tip-top bucks.

Having, though I say it myself, the word of being a canny maister, more
than one brought their callants to me, on reading the bill of "An
apprentice wanted," pasted on my shop-window.

Offering to bind them for the regular time, yet not wishing to take but
one, I thought best not to fix in a hurry