Page:History of John Cheap the chapman (2).pdf/21

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John Cheap the Chapman.
21

I am sure wi' them I never saw. But what about the button and the bane-kame, goodwife? Sannock is na this the man? Ay is't, cried the boy, gie me my button, for I burnt the kame, and she paid me for't. Gae awa sir, said I, your mother and you are but mocking me. It was either you or ane like you, or some other body. O goodwife, I mind who It is now, 'tis ane just like me, when ye see the tane ye see the tither, they ca' him Jock Jimpither. A wae worth him, quo' the wife, if I winna thrapple him for my good bane-kame. Now, said I, goodwife be good, bridle your passion, and buy a bane kame and colour'd napkin, I'll gie you a whaken pennyworth will gar you sing in your bed, if I should sell the sae half and gift you the tither, and gar you pay for every inch o't sweetly or a' be done. Hech man, said she, ye're a hearty fallow, and I hae need o' a' these things, but a bane-kame I maun hae; for our Sannock's head is a' hotchin, and our John's is little better, for an let them alane but ae aught days, they'll grow as girt as grosets. And here I sold a bane-kame and a napkin, for she believed such a douse lad as I had no hand in-making her son burn the bone-comb.

The next house I came into, there was a very little taylor, sitting on a table like a t-d on a truncher, with his legs plet over other, made me imagine he was a sucking three footed taylor. First I sold him a thimble, and then he wanted needles, which I showed him one paper after another. He looking their eyes and trying their nebs in his sleeve, dropt the ones he thought proper on the ground between his feet, where he sat in a dark corner near the fire, thinking I would not perceive him. O, said he, them needles of yours is not not good man, I'll not buy any of them. I do not think you need, said I, taking them out of his hands, and lights a candle was standing near by. Come, said I, sit about you thieving