n the band; a long-tailed old
black coat, as brown as a berry, and as bare as my loof, to say nothing
of being out at both elbows. His trowsers, I dare say, had once been
nankeen; but as they did not appear to have seen the washing-tub for a
season or two, it would be rash to give any decided opinion on that head.
In short, they were two awful-like raggamuffins.

Women, however, are aye sympathizing and merciful; so as I was standing
among the crowd, as they came down the tolbooth stair, chained together
by the cuffs of the coat, one said, "Wae's me! what a weel-faur'd fellow,
wi' the red head, to be found guilty of stealing folk's hen-houses."--And
another one said, "Hech, sirs! what a bonny blackaviced man that little
ane is, to be paraded through the streets for a warld's wonder!" But I
said nothing, knowing the thing was just, and a wholesome example;
holding Benjie on my shoulder to see the poukit hens tied about their
necks like keeking-glasses. But, puh! the fellows did not give one pinch
of snuff; so off they set, and in this manner were drummed through the
bounds of the parish, a constable walking at each side of them with
Lochaber axes, and the town-drummer row-de-dowing the thief's march at
their backs. It was a humbling sight.

My heart was sorrowful, notwithstanding the ills they had done me and
mine, by the nefarious pillaging of our hen-house, to see two human
creatures of the same flesh and blood as myself, undergoing the righteous
sentence of the law, in a manner so degrading to themselves, and so
pitiful to all that beheld them. But, nevertheless, considering what
they had done, they neither deserved, nor did they seem to care for
commiseration, holding up their brazen faces as if they had been taking a
pleasure walk for the benefit of their health, and the poukit hens, that
dangled before them, ornaments of their bravery. The whole crowd, young
and old, followed them from one end of the town to the other, liking to
ding one another over, so anxious were they to get a sight of what was
going on; but when they came to the gate-end, they stopped and gave the
ne'er-do-weels three cheers. What think you did the ne'er-do-weels do in
return? Fie shame! they took off their old scrapers and gave a huzza
too; clapping their hands behind them, in a manner as deplorable to
relate as it was shocking to behold.

Their chains--the things, ye know, that held their cuffs together--were
by this time taken off