Page:History of John Cheap the chapman (5).pdf/17

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JOHN CHEAP THE CHAPMAN.
17

freely granted, thinking I was some gentle packman with a rich pack, but I being weary with travelling, could take but little or no ſupper! being permitted to ly in ſpence beſide the goodman's bed, the goodwife being very hard of hearing, ſhe thought that every body was ſo, when ſhe when to bed, ſhe cried out, "A how hearie, is na yon a brave moderate chapmen we hae here the night, he took juſt ſeven ſoups o' our ſowens, and that fill'd him fu'; a dear Andrew man, turn ye about, an' tak my cauld a--ſe in your warm lunchoch." On the morrow I went to the kirk with the goodman, and I miſſing him about the door, went in o' the middle of the kirk, but could ſee no empty ſeats but one big furm, whare none ſat But one woman by herſelf, and ſo I ſet myſelf down beſide her, non knowing where I was, until ſermon was over, when the miniſter began to rebuke her for uſing her Merry-bit; againſt law or licence; and then ſhe began to whinge and yonl like a dog which made me to run out curſing, before the miniſter had given the bleſſing: I then came home to my lodging houſe, and went to dinner with the goodman, and it being the cuſtom in that place to eat peaſe bread to their broth, and corn cakes to their fleſh, the goodwife laid down a corn ſcone, and a peaſe ſcone to the goodman, and the ſame to me, the peaſe one for the broth and the corn one for the beef; and as the goodman, and I ſat together, when he brake off a piece of a peaſe bread to his broth, I was ſure to break as much of the oat cake below, and when we came to eat the fleſh I did the ſame, so he ate the courſe and I the fine.



PART III.

I Travelled, then weſt by Falkirk, by the foot of the great hills: and one night after I had got lodging in a farmer's house, there happened a conteſt between the