Page:Stevenson - Weir of Hermiston (1896).djvu/148

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WEIR OF HERMISTON

to you when I'm so minded, but I'll keep my liberty too. Thir's no man can coandescend on what I'm worth.' Clein would expound to him the miraculous results of compound interest, and recommend investments. 'Ay, man?' Dand would say; 'and do you think, if I took Hob's siller, that I wouldna drink it or wear it on the lassies? And, anyway, my kingdom is no of this world. Either I'm a poet or else I'm nothing.' Clem would remind him of old age. 'I'll die young, like, Robbie Burns,' he would say stoutly. No question but he had a certain accomplishment in minor verse. His 'Hermiston Burn,' with its pretty refrain—

'I love to gang thinking whaur ye gang linking,
Hermiston burn, in the howe;'

his 'Auld, auld Elliotts, clay-cauld Elliotts, dour, bauld Elliotts of auld,' and his really fascinating piece about the Praying Weaver's Stone, had gained him in the neighbour-

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