cunning about him, to see this wonderful dog-fight; but speedily returned with the information that he could see nothing of the kind. "They'll just be dune, then," coolly observed Bobby. "But what's come o' the whisky?" said Jamie, as he opened wide his eyes on the stoup standing empty. "Ou, man," was the treacherous reply, "ye see I couldna wait." Upon Jamie's being questioned how he had revenged this foul play, his answer was in perfect character,--"Ou, what could ye say to puir Bobby? He's daft, ye ken." Though much inferior to his crony in trickery--of which, indeed, he had none--Jamie was much his superior in intellect and knowledge. His father is said to have been a decent religious man, who took him regularly to a place of worship in the Old Town on the Sabbaths; and Jamie, perhaps from habit, continued as regularly to keep up the practice. On one occasion, when examined by a worthy elder of the congregation, it was said that Jamie not only shewed far more knowledge than could have been expected from him, but turned the tables upon his querist, putting considerably more than the old theological questions of the _enfants terribles_, which no one has been able to answer any more than our learned elder. And then, to crown all, there was the parting valediction, "If ye wud like ony mair information, Mr ----, ye ken brawly whaur to fin' me." One morning in the month of September or early in October of the same year, Jamie was, as usual, wandering about in the Grassmarket, giving his bow and twitch of the lock to any superior person he met; for he well knew the differences of caste, considering himself far above the lowest, if not even up to the line which he drew between the giving and the withholding of the brass box and the spoon. Kindly affected towards his mother,--to whose love in return he was indebted for the clean way in which he was kept, and many attentions, for which, by a wise providence, the natural comes in, as if for compensation, to the exclusion of his brothers and sisters,--Jamie was looking for his parent. At this time he was observed by Mrs Hare,[9] who, going up as she had often done before, asked him who he was looking for. "My mither," was the answer; "hae ye seen her ony gait?" "Ay," said the woman, "she's in my house." And with this temptation she induced him to go with her. They were soon in the old den--Log's lodgings--where Hare himself was crouching for prey. Behold Jamie introduced to the court with the old honour--the fatal wink! There left with one who would take special care that he would not escape, the woman, as a provider of another kind--for she catered for life as well as death--went to Mr Rymer's shop to get some butter, and it chanced that Burke was at the time standing beside the counter. She then asked her friend, who, as we have said, was now in other lodgings, for a dram, which was accordingly handed to her by Mr Rymer, and when she was drinking it