Thomas Burlings then came forward in a friendly way, and shook hands with
me; telling that he would go back and plead before them in my behalf. He
said this over again, as we parted, at my shop-door; and, to do him
justice, surely he had not been worse than his word, for I have aye
attended the kirk as usual, standing, when it came to my rotation, at the
plate, and nobody, gentle or semple, ever spoke to me on the subject of
the playhouse, or minted the matter of the Rebuke from that day to this.
CHAPTER XIX.--THE AWFUL NIGHT.
Ha!--'twas but a dream;
But then so terrible, it shakes my soul!
Cold drops of sweat hang on my trembling flesh;
My blood grows chilly, and I freeze with horror.
_Richard the Third_.
The Fire-king one day rather amorous felt;
He mounted his hot copper filly;
His breeches and boots were of tin, and the belt
Was made of cast-iron, for fear it should melt
With the heat of the copper colt's belly.
Oh! then there was glitter and fire in each eye,
For two living coals were the symbols;
His teeth were calcined, and his tongue was so dry,
It rattled against them as though you should try
To play the piano on thimbles.
_Rejected Addresses_.
In the course of a fortnight from the time I parted with Maister Glen,
the Lauder carrier, limping Jamie, brought his callant to our shop-door
in his hand. He was a tall slender laddie, some fourteen years old, and
sore grown away from his clothes. There was something genty and delicate-
like about him, having a pale sharp face, blue eyes, a nose like a
hawk's, and long yellow hair hanging about his haffets, as if barbers
were unco scarce cattle among the howes of the Lammermoor hills. Having
a general experience of human nature, I saw that I would have something
to do towards bringing him into a state of rational civilization; but,
considering his opportunities, he had been well educated, and I liked his
appearance on the whole not that ill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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