only somehoo whatever a man begins wi', he'll aye en' aff wi' the same
thing. The Lord hae a care o' them, for they're awfu' craters! They're
no like ither fowk a'thegither. Weel, ye see, I had a room till
mysel', forby the library an' my bedroom--an' a gran' place that was! I
didna see onything o' the family, for I had my denner and my wine and
'a thing human stammack cud desire served up till me i' my ain room.
But ae day, my denner was made up o' ae mess efter anither, vera fine
nae doot, but unco queer and ootlandish, and I had nae appeteet, and I
cudna eat it. Sae I rase, afore my ordinar' time, and gaed back to my
wark. I had taen twa or three glasses o' a dooms fine tipple they ca'
Madeira, an' a moufu' o' cheese--that was a'. Weel, I sat doon to my
catalogue there, as it micht be here; but I hadna sat copyin' the
teetles o' the buiks laid out upo' the muckle table afore me, for mair
nor twa minutes, whan I heard a kin' o' a reestlin', an' I thocht it
was mice, to whilk I'm a deidly enemy ever sin they ate half o' a first
edition o' the _Fairy Queen_, conteenin' only the first three buiks, ye
ken, o' whilk they consumed an' nae doot assimilated ae haill buik and
full a half o' anither. But whan I luikit up, what sud I see but a wee
leddy, in a goon the colour o' a clood that's takin' nae pairt i' the
sunset, but jist lookin' on like, stan'in afore the buik-shelves i' the
further en' o' the room. Noo I'm terrible lang-sichtit, and I had
pitten the buiks i' that pairt a' richt already wi' my ain han'--and I
saw her put her han' upon a buik that was no fit for her. I winna say
what it was. Some hermaphrodeet cratur had written't that had no respec
for man or woman, an' whase neck sud hae been thrawn by the midwife,
for that buik cam o' sparin' o' 'm!

"'Dinna touch that buik, my bonny leddy,' I cried. 'It's awfu' fu' o'
dist and stoor. It'll smore ye to open the twa brods o' 't. Yer rosy
goon'll be clean blaudit wi' the stew (dust) o' 't.'

"She startit and luikit roon some frichtit like, and I rase an' gaed
across the flure till her. And her face grew bonnier as I cam nearer
till her. Her nose an' her twa eebrees jist min'd ye upo' the picturs
o' the Holy Ghost comin' doon like a doo; and oot aneath ilka wing
there luikit a hert o' licht--that was her twa een, that gaed throu and
throu me as gin I had been a warp and they twa shuttles; and faith!
they made o' my life and o' me what it is and I am. They wove the w