"The sweat broke ower me from head to foot. 'Sir, my wife, Nancy! Is that document, in the handwriting o' the man himsel', not proof positive that I have paid the money?' "The writer shook his head; and a gentleman that was standing near me, and who was very probably in a similar predicament to myself, said--'Unstamped receipts, sir, may do very well, where ye find a world o' purely honest men--but they winna do where ye arena sure but ye may be dealing wi' a rogue.' "'Gentlemen!' cried I, 'have ye really the cruelty and injustice to say that I am to pay that money owre again?' "'Owre again or not owre again,' said the writer, 'ye must pay it, otherwise summary proceedings will be entered against ye. If ye have already paid it in the way ye say, it is only making good the proverb, that the 'simple man is the beggar's brother.'" "'Oh, confound ye!' cried I, 'for a parcel o' unprincipled knaves--that is exactly what my wife says; and had I followed her advice, I would ne'er hae seen ane o' yer faces.' "However, the ninety pounds I had to pay again, doun upon the nail; and that was another o' the beautiful effects o' my simplicity. I didna ken how, in the universal globe, I was to muster courage to look my wife in the face again. Yet all that she said was--'O Nicholas! Nicholas!--would ye only be less simple!' "'Heigho!' said I, 'dinna talk about it, Nancy--I'm owre grieved as it is--I can stand no more!' "The loss o' the three hundred pounds, wi' the bill business, and the ninety just mentioned, made me to stagger, and those that knew about the circumstances wondered how I stood them. But I had just begun a new concern, which was the manufacture o' table-cloths upon a new principle, and with exceedingly splendid patterns. I got an extraordinary sale for them, and orders came pouring in upon me. But I had to employ more men to fulfil them, and their wages were to pay every Saturday, while the remittances did not come in by half so regular as the orders, and I found it was not easy to pay men without receiving money for their work. Had I been a man o' a great capital, the case might have been different. There was one day, however, that a gentleman that had dealt wi' me very extensively called upon me, and he gied me a very excellent order. But, although he had seen a great deal o' my goods, I never had seen the shadow o' his cash. I canna say that I exactly liked his manner o' doing business; yet I couldna, for the breath that was in my body, have the face to say an impertinent thing to ony one, and I was just telling him that his order should be attended to, when my wife, who was sitting in a room off the parlour, gave a tap upon the door, and, asking the gentleman to excuse me for a minute, I stepped ben, and I half whispered to her--'What is it, dear?' "'Has that man spoken about paying ye?' said she. "'No,' said I.