CHAPTER III.
All Scots know how to reckon.—Rabelais in Scotland.—How Donald made two pence halfpenny by going to the Lock-up.—Difference between buying and stealing.—Scotch Honesty.—Last words of a Father to his Son.—Abraham in Scotland.—How Donald outdid Jonathan.—Circumspection, Insinuations, and Negations.—Delicious Declarations of Love.—Laconism.—Conversation reduced to its simplest Expression.—A, e, i, o, u.—A visit to Thomas Carlyle.—The Silent Academy of Hamadan.—With the Author's Compliments.
ll the Scotch know how to read, write, and reckon.
Especially reckon.
The following adventure happened but the other day.
A wily Caledonian, accused of having insulted a policeman, was condemned by the Bailie of his village to pay a fine of half-a-crown, with the alternative of six days' imprisonment.
As there are few Scots who have not half-a-crown in their pockets, you will perhaps imagine that Friend Donald paid the money, glad to get out of the scrape so cheaply.
Not at all: when you are born in Scotland, you do not part with your cash without a little reflection.