and knock down the old kirk, ye would say no more than it's gey an'
queerish!"

"Queerish, man! do ye not see that?" added I, shoving down his head
mostly on the top of it. "Do ye not see that? awful, most awful!
extonishing!! Do ye not see that long beard? Who, in the name of
goodness, ever was an eyewitness to a sheep's head, in a Christian land,
with a beard like an unshaven Jew crying 'owl clowes,' with a green bag
over his left shoulder!"

"Dog on it," said James, giving a fidge with his hainches; "Dog on it, as
I am a living sinner, that is the head of a Willie-goat."

"Willie or Nannie," answered I, "it's not meat for me; and never shall an
ounce of it cross the craig of my family:--that is as sure as ever James
Batter drave a shuttle. Give counsel in need, James: what is to be
done?"

"That needs consideration," quo' James, giving a bit hoast. "Unless he
makes ample apology, and explains the mistake in a feasible way, it is my
humble opinion that he ought to be summoned before his betters. That is
the legal way to make him smart for his sins."

At last a thought struck me, and I saw farther through my difficulties
than ever mortal man did through a millstone; but, like a politician, I
minted not the matter to James. Keeping my tongue cannily within my
teeth, I then laid the head, wrapped up in the bit towel, in a corner
behind the counter; and turning my face round again to James, I put my
hands into my breeches-pockets, as if nothing in the world had happened,
and ventured back to the story of the mermaid. I asked him how she
looked--what kind of dress she wore--if she swam with her corsets--what
was the colour of her hair--where she would buy the tortoise-shell
comb--and so on; when, just as he was clearing his pipe to reply, who
should burst open the shop-door like a clap of thunder, with burning
cat's een, and a face as red as a soldier's jacket, but Cursecowl
himself, with the new killing-coat in his hand,--which, giving a
tremendous curse, the words of which are not essentially necessary for me
to repeat, being an elder of our kirk, he made play flee at me with such
a birr, that it twisted round my neck, and, mostly blinding me, made me
doze like a tottum. At the same time, to clear his way, and the better
to enable him to take a good mark, he gave James Batter a shove, that
made him stotter against the wall, and snacked the good new farthing
tobacco-pipe, that James was taking his first whi