"Yes; how did you do it?"
"Oh, it's juist the pipes!" he answered, patting them affectionately, "will I show ye the noo?"
"Pray do," said I. Hereupon he set the mouthpiece to his lips, inflated the bag, stopped the vents with his fingers, and immediately the air vibrated with the bubbling scream I have already attempted to describe.
"Oh, man!" he exclaimed, laying the still groaning instrument gently aside, "oh, man! is it no juist won'erful?"
"But what has been your object in terrifying people out of their wits in this manner?"
"Sir, it's a' on account o' the snuff."
"Snuff!" I repeated.
"Juist that!" he nodded.
"Snuff," said I again; "what do you mean?"
The Piper smiled again—a slow smile, that seemingly dawned only to vanish again; it was, indeed, if I may so express it, a grave and solemn smile, and his nearest approach to mirth, for not once in the days which followed did I ever see him give vent to a laugh. I here also take the opportunity to say that I have greatly modified his speech in the writing, for it was so broad that I had much ado to grasp his meaning at times.