iness is
it o' yours whether I have got my money or no?'

"'If it isna my business, Nicholas,' said she, 'I would like to ken whase
business it is? I am the wife o' your bosom--the mother o' your family--am
I not? Guidman, ye may take ill what I say to ye, but it is meant for your
good. Now, ye hae ta'en the bill o' the man that has just left ye, for four
hundred and odd pounds! What do ye ken aboot him? Naething!--naething in
the blessed world! Ye are a simple man, Nicholas!'

"'Dinna say that,' said I; 'I am not simple. I told him to his face that I
didna like his bills. But ye are like a' women--ye would do wonders if ye
were men! But his bill prevents a' disputes about his account--do ye not
see that--and I can cash it if I wish.'

"'Very true,' said she, 'ye can cash it, Nicholas, but upon your own
credit, and at your own risk.'

"'Risk!' said I, 'the woman's a fool to talk in such a manner about an
every-day transaction.'

"'Weel,' answered she, 'not to say that there is the slightest risk in the
matter, have ye considered, that, if ye do cash this bill, there will be a
heavy discount to pay, and if ye pay it, what is to become o' your profits?
Did ye tell him, that if ye took his bill ye would carry the discount to
his next account?'

"'O Nancy! Nancy!' cried I, 'ye would skin the wind! Just take yoursel'
away, if ye please; for really ye're tormenting me--making a perfect gowk
o' me, for neither end nor purpose.'

"'Oh, if that be the way,' said she, 'I can leave ye--but I have seen the
day when ye thought otherwise o' my company. Yet, the more I see o' your
transactions, Nicholas, the more I am convinced in the truth o' the saying,
that the simple man is the beggar's brother.'

"'Sorrow take ye, wife!' cried I, 'will ye really come owre thae words
again. Are ye not aware that I detest and abhor them? Have I not said that
to ye again and again?--and yet ye will repeat them in my hearing? Do ye
wish to drive me mad?'

"'I would wish to see ye act,' answered she, 'so that I would ne'er need to
use them again.' And, on saying that, she went out o' the room, which to me
was a great deliverance.

"I got the bill cashed, and, to tell ye the plain truth, I also had it to
pay. This was a dreadfu' loss to me; and I found there was naething left
for me but so _sit down_,(if ye understand what that means,) as mony a guid
man has been compelled to do. Hooever, I paid every body seventeen
shillings and sixpence h