Page:History of John Cheap the comical chapman.pdf/7

'should lye in my midden-dub, ye's get nae quar‘ ters frae me this night; ' a wheen idle lazy villains ‘ rins a, to be chapmen, comes thro' the kintry ay ‘ fashin fouk seeking quarters ; neisht day ye‘ll be ‘ gaun wi‘ a powdered perriwig an‘ a watch at your ' ballup, an‘ winna let fouk stand afore your shop-door, ye'll be sae fancy.' I hearing this my sentence from the goodman, expected no relief but lye out, yet I perceived when he came out of the barn he only drew the barn door too behind, and so when he was gone I slipt into the barn, and by help of one of the couples climbs up to the mou, and there dived down among the sheaves, and happed myself all over, so that I lay as warm as the goodman himself; but in the morning, long before the break of day, the two fellows came into the barn and fell a threshin, that by their disturbance, I could sleep no more ; at last I got up with all my hair hanging over my face, and when he that stood on the opposite side perceived me, I made my eyes roll, and wrayed my mouth in a frightful manner, so that the poor fellow thought he had seen the de‘il, or something muckle warse, gave a roar as if he had been sticket, and oat he runs and the other follows after him crying Wow Johnny man, an' what did ye see : O Sandy, Sandy, the de'il on the tap i' the mou shav'ling his mouth at me, I'll no be sae well this month man, my heart's out o' its hole. Vow but you be fearfu' like indeed, says the other, it would fright ony living creature out o' their seven senses.
I hearing the fear they were in, cried out to them not to be frighted, for I was not the de'il, but a poor chapman who would not get quarters last night. A foul fa' thy carcase sir, for our ]ack is through the midden dub, dirt an a' the gither, he who went out last came back again, but the other ran into the house and told what he had seen, the goodman and his wife came running,he with the grape and she with