wn
which Joshua held between his finger and his thumb, saying, at the
same time, 'Friend, thou art indigent and improvident. This will, well
employed, procure thee sustentation of nature for more than a single
day; and I will bestow it on thee if thou wilt sit here and keep me
company; for neither thou nor I, friend, are fit company for ladies.'

'Speak for yourself, friend,' said Peter, scornfully; 'I was ay kend to
be agreeable to the fair sex; and when I was in business I served the
ladies wi' anither sort of decorum than Plainstanes, the d--d awkward
scoundrel! It was one of the articles of dittay between us.'

'Well, but, friend,' said the Quaker, who observed that the young lady
still seemed to fear Peter's intrusion, 'I wish to hear thee speak about
this great lawsuit of thine, which has been matter of such celebrity.'

'Celebrity! Ye may swear that,' said Peter, for the string was touched
to which his crazy imagination always vibrated. 'And I dinna wonder
that folk that judge things by their outward grandeur, should think me
something worth their envying. It's very true that it is grandeur upon
earth to hear ane's name thunnered out along the long-arched roof of the
Outer House,--"Poor Peter Peebles against Plainstanes ET PER CONTRA;"
a' the best lawyers in the house fleeing like eagles to the prey; some
because they are in the cause, and some because they want to be thought
engaged (for there are tricks in other trades by selling muslins)--to
see the reporters mending their pens to take down the debate--the Lords
themselves pooin' in their chairs, like folk sitting down to a gude
dinner, and crying on the clerks for parts and pendicles of the process,
who, puir bodies, can do little mair than cry on their closet-keepers
to help them. To see a' this,' continued Peter, in a tone of sustained
rapture, 'and to ken that naething will be said or dune amang a' thae
grand folk, for maybe the feck of three hours, saving what concerns you
and your business--Oh, man, nae wonder that ye judge this to be earthly
glory! And yet, neighbour, as I was saying, there be unco drawbacks--I
whiles think of my bit house, where dinner, and supper, and breakfast,
used to come without the crying for, just as if fairies had brought
it--and the gude bed at e'en--and the needfu' penny in the pouch. And
then to see a' ane's warldly substance capering in the air in a pair of
weighbauks, now up, now down, as the breath of judge or counsel in