ad a drop
now."

"How much could you do with?"

"A wee drop in a bucket, about two hoops up. The last time I'd a drop
o' rum in me, do you know what I did? I had on a very shabby coat, all
torn at the elbows, and only one tail to it, so I spied a country bloke
with his girl, dressed out in new toggery. I says to my pal, 'I say,
O'Shockady, there's a new coat on that bloke's back that I must have on
mine; he is just about my size. You go up and be messing about with his
girl, and you'll see he will guard and offer to fight. You take off
your coat and put up your 'props' to him, and get him to strip also.
Well, I'll come up and see fair play, and while you're at the fists
I'll leave my tog and take his, d'ye twig?' Well, up O'Shockady went,
and, my crikey! if you had seen how the bloke fired up when his girl
was insulted! why, his coat was off in a jiffey, and it was soon
farther off than he could catch, I can tell you. After I got round the
corner O'Shockady gave in to the bloke and bolted, leaving him in his
shirt-sleeves to escort the girl."

"That reminds me," said Dick, "of an affair I was once in. When I was a
lad I ran away from home. I was afraid to go back, lest I should get a
bashing. At that time there was a woman in the High Street of
Edinburgh, who took in lads situated as I was, and made them go out and
steal, to pay her for their lodging. There were about twenty of us in
the house at the time I went; some of them wenches and some of them
young chaps like myself. Well, one night we were rather hard up and we
wanted a good feed, so five or six of us set out, along with a great
stout fellow, and we actually stole a whole sheep that was hanging at a
butcher's door, and the big chap swagged it home. The old woman had it
put in the bed, and covered it with the bed-clothes, as if it was a
sick person; and the 'bobbies' found it there before she had time to
get it cooked for us, and, by jingo! we were all marched up to the
'lock-up' over it. Well, I got thirty days over that job. When I came
out of jail I went to a fair in the neighbourhood, and I prigged a
countryman's 'poke' as he was standing at one of those barrows where
they shoot for nuts; and, by the piper! the 'copper' saw me and marched
me off to the station. But just before coming out of the crowd I got
twisted round a little behind the 'bobby,' and I passed the purse into
his pocket. Well, off we marched to the station, and when we arrived
there the