There was no end to Cleg's entertainment when he felt that he had an
appreciative audience. And as the comedy consisted not so much in what
he said as in the perfect solemnity of his countenance, the charm of
his bare arms meandering through the holes in the corners of the sack,
and the bare legs stalking compass-like through its open mouth, Poet
Jock laughed till he had to lie down on the floor in the corner. Even
Auld Chairlie was compelled perforce to smile, though he often declared
his belief that it was all vanity, and that Cleg was certainly a child
of the devil.
Chairlie was specially confirmed in this opinion by Cleg's next
characterisation.
"Did ye ever see the Track Woman?" said Cleg, dropping for a moment
into his own manner. "I canna' bide her ava. There's them that we like
to see comin' into our hooses—folk like Miss Celie, that is veesitor in
oor district, or Big Smith, the Pleasance Missionary, even though he
whiles gies us a lick wi' his knobby stick for cloddin' cats. But the
Track Woman I canna bide. This is her!"
And he gathered up his sack very high in front of him, to express the
damage which it would receive by contact with the dirt of Poet Jock's
abode. Then he threw back his head and stuck out his chin, to convey an
impression of extreme condescension.
"Good day, poor people," he said, "I have called to leave you a little
tract. I don't know how you can live in such a place. Why don't you
move away? And the stair is so dirty and sticky! It is really not fit
for a lady to come up. What's this? What's this"—(smelling)—"chops!
Chops are far too expensive and wasteful for people in your position. A
little liver, now, or beef-bone——. What did you say? 'Get out of this!'
Surely I did not hear you right! Do you know that I came here to do you
good, and to leave you a little tract? Now, I pray you, do not let your
angry passions rise. I will, however, do my duty, and leave a little
tract. Read it carefully; I hope it will do you good. It is fitted to
teach you how to be grateful for the interest that is taken in you by
your betters!"
As soon as Cleg had finished, he lifted the skirts of his old sack
still higher, tilted his nose yet more in the air, and sailed out,
sniffing meanwhile from right to left and back again with extreme
disfavour.
But as soon as he had reached the door his manner suffered a
sea-change. He bounded in with a somersault, leaped to his feet, and
pretended to look out of the door after the departing "Track Woman."
"O ye besom!" he cried, "comin' here nosing and advising—as stuffed wi'
stinkin' pride as a butcher's shop wi' bluebottles in the last week o'
July! Dook her in the dub! Fling dead cats at her, and clod her wi'
cabbages and glaur! Pour dish-washin's on her. Ah, the pridefu' besom!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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