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advises him to bury him privately. The
laird said he had not a servant he could
trust, so begged Leper to do it. Leper re-
fuses, till the laird promises him a load of
meal, then Leper pulls out all the hay out
of the groom's clothes, goes and gets his
load of meal, and sends it to Glasgow,--
then goes to the groom, and says, lad thy
master is wanting thee. So the lad in all
haste runs to see what his master wanted,
the laird no sooner saw him open the door,
than he cried out, Avoid thee Satan, avoid
thee Satan! The lad says, what's the mat-
ter? Did not you hang yourself this morn-
ing? Lord forbid! said the lad. The laird
says if thou be an earthly creature, take
that tankard and drink: which he did; then
says he to his master, Leper called me up,
and said you wanted me in all haste. Ho,
ho, said the laird, I find out the story now,
if I had Leper I would run my sword thro
him; but Leper before that was gone for
Glasgow with his meal.
Leper was in use to give his lads their
Sunday's supper, which obliged him to stay
from the kirk in the afternoon, he having
neither wife nor servant maid; so one Sun-
day afternoon as he was cooking his pot,
John Mucklecheek, and James Puff-and-
blaw, two civileers, having more zeal than
knowledge, came upon him, and said.....
