“It was stabled behind the bazaar, and had to be ta’en awa’ that nicht. I offered it to onybody that wanted it for naething, but naebody wad tak’ it aff my hands because they a’ said they had to tak’ the car hame, and they wadna be allooed to tak’ a powney into a car wi’ them. So they left me wi’ a bonny-like prize. “I put its claes on the best way I could, fanklin’ a’ the straps, and dragged it hame. We lived in the close at the time, and I thocht maybe Jinnet wad let me keep it in the lobby till the Monday mornin’ till I could see whit I could dae. But she wadna hear tell o’t. She said, it wad scrape a’ the waxcloth wi’ it’s aim buits, and wad be a bonny-like thing to be nicherrin’ a’ Sunday, scandalisin’ the neebours, forbye there bein’ nae gress in the hoose to feed it on. I said I wad rise early in the mornin’ and gaither denty-lions for’t oot at the Three-Tree Well, but she wadna let me nor the powney inside the door. “It wasna an awfu’ big broad powney, but a wee smout o’ a thing they ca’ a Shetland shawl powney, and its harness didna fit it ony place at a’. It looked at the twa o’ us, kind o’ dazed like. “‘Ye’re, no’ gaun to turn my hoose into a stable, and me jist cleaned it this very day,’ said Jinnet. “‘And am I gaun to walk the streets a’ nicht wi’t?’ I asked, near greetin’. “‘Put it oot in the ash-pit, and the scavengers ‘ll tak’ it awa’ in the mornin’,’ she said, and I did that, forgettin’ that the mornin’ was the Sunday. “But it didna maitter; the powney wasna there in the mornin’, and I took guid care no’ to ask for’t.” XIV HOLIDAYS |Well, Erchie; not away on the Fair holidays?” I asked the old man one July day on meeting him as he came out of a little grocer’s shop in the New City Road. The dignity of his profession is ever dear to Erchie; he kept his purchase behind his back, but I saw later it was kindling material for the morning fire. “Not me!” said he. “There’s nae Fair holidays for puir auld Erchie, no’ even on the Sunday, or I might hae ta’en the skoosh car doon the wye o’ Yoker, noo that a hurl on Sunday’s no’ that awfu’ sair looked doon on, or the ‘Mornin’ Star’ ‘bus to Paisley. But Jinnet went awa’ on Settur-day wi’ her guid-sister to Dunoon, and I’m my lee-lane in the hoose till the morn’s mornin’. It’s nae divert, I’m tellin’ ye; there’s a lot o’ things to mind forbye the windin’ o’ the nock on Setturday and watering the fuchsia. I can wait a municeepal banquet wi’ ony man in my tred, but I’m no’ great hand at cookin’ for mysel’. “Did I ever tell ye aboot the time the wife was awa’ afore at a Fair, and I took a notion o’ a seedcake Duffy’s first wife had to the tea she trated me to on the Sawbath? “‘It’s as easy to mak’ as boilin’ an egg,’ says Mrs Duffy, and gied me the receipt for’t on con-deetion that when I made it I was to bring her a sample. Something went wrang, and I brought her the sample next day in a bottle. It was a gey damp seedcake thon!