'Aweel, sir, just as you and he like, so ye see to my business,' said
Dandie, not a whit disconcerted by the roughness of this reception.
'We're at the auld wark o' the marches again, Jock o' Dawston Cleugh
and me. Ye see we march on the tap o' Touthop-rigg after we pass the
Pomoragrains; for the Pomoragrains, and Slackenspool, and Bloodylaws,
they come in there, and they belang to the Peel; but after ye pass
Pomoragrains at a muckle great saucer-headed cutlugged stane that they
ca' Charlie's Chuckie, there Dawston Cleugh and Charlie's Hope they
march. Now, I say the march rins on the tap o' the hill where the wind
and water shears; but Jock o' Dawston Cleugh again, he contravenes
that, and says that it bauds down by the auld drove-road that gaes awa
by the Knot o' the Gate ower to Keeldar Ward; and that makes an unco
difference.'
'And what difference does it make, friend?' said Pleydell. 'How many
sheep will it feed?'
'Ou, no mony,' said Dandie, scratching his head; 'it's lying high and
exposed: it may feed a hog, or aiblins twa in a good year.'
'And for this grazing, which may be worth about five shillings a year,
you are willing to throw away a hundred pound or two?'
'Na, sir, it's no for the value of the grass,' replied Dinmont; 'it's
for justice.'
'My good friend,' said Pleydell, 'justice, like charity, should begin
at home. Do you justice to your wife and family, and think no more
about the matter.'
Dinmont still lingered, twisting his hat in his hand. 'It's no for
that, sir; but I would like ill to be bragged wi' him; he threeps he'll
bring a score o' witnesses and mair, and I'm sure there's as mony will
swear for me as for him, folk that lived a' their days upon the
Charlie's Hope, and wadna like to see the land lose its right.'
'Zounds, man, if it be a point of honour,' said the lawyer, 'why don't
your landlords take it up?'
'I dinna ken, sir (scratching his head again); there's been nae
election-dusts lately, and the lairds are unco neighbourly, and Jock
and me canna get them to yoke thegither about it a' that we can say;
but if ye thought we might keep up the rent--'
'No! no! that will never do,' said Pleydell. 'Confound you, why don't
you take good cudgels and settle it?'
'Odd, sir,' answered the farmer, 'we tried that three times already,
that's twice on the land and ance at Lockerby Fair. But I dinna ken;
we're baith gey good at single-stick, and it couldna weel be judged.'
'Then take broadswords, and be d--d to you, as your fathers did before
you,' said the counsel learned in the law.
'Aweel, sir, if ye think it wadna be again the law, it's a' ane to
Dandie.'
'Hold! hold!' exclaimed Pleydell, 'we shall have another Lord Soulis'
mistake. Pr'ythee, man, comprehend me; I wish you to consider how very
trifling and foolish a lawsuit you wish to engage in.'
'Ay, sir?' said Dandie, in a disappointed tone. 'So ye winna take on
wi' me, I'm doubting?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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