"Dinna spae ill-fortune!" said the baker, "dinna spae ill-fortune! And never despise a youngster for a random start. It's the blood makes a breenge."
"Well, I like young men to be quiet," said Sandy Toddle. "I would rather have them a wee soft than rollickers."
"Not I!" said the baker. "If I had a son, I would rather an ill deil sat forenenst me at the table than parratch in a poke. Burns (God rest his banes!) struck the he'rt o't. Ye mind what he said o' Prince Geordie:
'Yet mony a ragged cowte's been known
To mak a noble aiver;
And ye may doucely fill a throne,
For a' their clishmaclaver.
There him at Agincourt wha shone.
Few better were or braver;
And yet wi' funny queer Sir John