John Cheap, the Chapman's Library. Vol. 1: Comic and Humorous: The Scottish Chap Literature of Last Century, ClassifiedGraham, Dougal
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John Cheap, the Chapman's Library. Vol. 1: Comic and Humorous: The Scottish Chap Literature of Last Century, Classified
Graham, Dougal
Chapbooks, Scottish; English literature -- 18th century; Graham, Dougal, 1724-1779; Popular literature -- Scotland
Come, said he, I’ll buy twa penny worth of them frae ye, I hae
troubled you sae muckle; no, said I, you lousied dog, I’ll sell
you none, if there’s any on the ground, seek them up and stap them
in a beast’s a--se; but if ye were a man, I would burn you in the
fire, though it be in your own house; but as you are a poor tailor,
and neither a man nor a boy, I’ll do nothing but expose you for
what you are. O dear honest chapman, cried his wife, ye maunna
do that, and I’se gie you cheese and bread. No, no, you thieves,
I’m for nothing but vengeance; no bribes for such. So as I was
lifting up my pack, there was a pretty black cat which I spread my
napkin over, took the four corners in my hand, carrying her as a
bundle, until I came about the middle of the town, then provoking
the dogs to an engagement with me, so that there came upon me four
or five collies, then I threw the poor tailor’s cat in the midst
of them, and a terrible battle ensued for some time, and baudrins
had certainly died in the field, had I not interposed and got her
off mortally wounded. The people who saw the battle alarmed the
tailor, and he sallied out like a great champion, with his elwand
in his hand. Go back, said I, you lousie dog, or I’ll tell about
the needles; at which word he turned about. I travelled down the
side of a water called Avon; and as I was coming past a mill-dam,
there was a big clownish fellow lifting a pitcher of water out of
the dam, so he dipt it full and set it down on the ground, staring
at me he rumbled in himself out of sight o’er head and ears, and as
soon as he got out, I said,--Yo ho, friend, did you get the fish?
What an a fish, ye b----h? O, said I, I thought you had seen a
fish, when you jumped in to make it jump out. What a d----l, sir,
are you mocking me?--runs round his pitcher, and gives me a kick
on the a--e, so that I fell designedly on his pitcher, and it
tumbled down the bank and went in pieces: his master and another
man looking and laughing at us, the poor fellow complained of me to
him, but got no satisfaction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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