9
"And did you cast up to Mrs Todd, mither," quo' the little cutty, “ that she was fat?”
“Ay, that I did," said Maggy. "I tell’t her she was like a barn door. I tell't her she was like the side of a house. Ye're a sow, quo' I; ye get fou every hour of the day wi' your lump of a guideman.'"
But this wasna a'———for nae sooner had Maggie answered her dochter's first question, than the eratur was ready wi' anither: "And mither, did ye east up to her that her faither was a meeser?”
"Atweel did I, Nancy," answered the gudewife. "I tellit her a' that. I eoost up to her that her faither was a meeser, and would ride to Lunnon on a louse, and make brecks of its skin, and candels of its tallow."
I could thole this nae langer. I fand the haill mau working within me, and was moved to a pitch of daring, mair like madness than onything else. Faith, the whisky was of gude service now, and so was Androw Brand's advice. I accordingly steekit my neives wi' desperation, threw awa' my cowl, tucked up my sark sleeves———for my coat happened to be aff at the time———and got up frae the three- footed stool I had been sitting upon in the twinkling of an e'e. I trumbled a' ower, but whether it was wi' fear, or wi' anger, or wi' baith put thegither, it would be dificult to say. I was in awfu' passion, and as fairee as a papish. “And so," said I, “ye coost up sic things to the honest woman, Mrs Todd! O, Maggy McGee, Maggy McGee, are ye no ashamed of yoursell? Odd it would hae dune your heart gude to see how she glowered at me. Sho was bewildered and lookit as if to see whether I was mysell, and no some ither body. But her evil speerit didna lie lang asleep: it soon broke out
