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 any body ever
hear such nonsense?) Before parting, he insisted that I should bear with
him, till he read me over the story he had just finished as I came in,
and which had been running in his noddle. At su