he bit table before him. The cat was
lying streaked out on the hearth, pur-purring away to herself, and the
kettle by the fire cheek was singing along with her, as if to cheer the
heart of their mutual master. As for Mr Batter, he looked as prejinct as
a pikestaff, and so taken up was he with his papers, that, when I asked
him how he felt, his answer, to my wonderment, was, that "in the Song of
Songs Solomon had likened the nose of his beloved to the tower of
Lebanon, which looketh towards Damascus." So brown was he in his
studies, that, for a while, I feared the fall had produced some crack in
his pan, and that his seven senses had gone a wool-gathering; but the
story will out, as ye will hear, and being naturally a wee-camstairie, I
gave him time to gather the feet of his faculties before pressing him too
hard; but even the sight of the bottle of porter toasting by the cheek of
the fire, hardly brought him at once to his right mind.

Mr Batter's noddle, however, after a little patience, clearing up, we
leisurely discussed between us the porter, which was in prime condition,
with a ream as yellow as a marigold; together with half-a-dozen of
butter-bakes, crimp and new-baked, it being batch-day with Thomas
Burlings, who, like his father and grandfather before him, have been
notorious in the biscuit department. It soon became clear to me, that
the dialogue about Lebanon and Damascus, which was followed up with a
clishmaclaver anent dirks, daggers, red cloaks, and other bloody weapons
which made all my flesh grue, had some connexion with Taffy's papers on
the table--out of which James had been diverting himself by reading bits
here and there, at random like.

In the course of our confab, he told me a monstrous heap about them; but,
in general, the things were so out of the course of Providence, and so
queer and leeing-like, that I, for one, would not believe them without
solemn affidavy. Indeed, I began at length to question within
myself--for the subject naturally resolved itself into two heads;
firstly, whether Taffy's master might not have had a bee in his bonnet;
or, secondly, whether he was a person not over-scrupulous regarding the
matter of truth. As for James, he declared him a nonsuch, and said, that
although poor, he would not have hesitated to have given him sixpence for
a lock of his hair, just to keep beside him for a keepsake; (did anybody
ever hear such nonsense?) Before parting, he insisted that I s