Erchie stared more closely at his lodger, and for the first time recognised his own swallow-tail coat.
“My goodness!” said he, “my business coat, and my beadlin’ hat. It was rale ill-done o’ ye, Mr Tod, to tak’ them oot withoot my leave. It’s the first time ever I was ashamed o’ them. Jist a puir auld waiter’s coat and hat. I wonder whit they wad say if they kent o’t up in Clachna-cudden. The auld dominie that was sae prood o’ ye wad be black affronted. My business coat! Tak’ it aff and gang to your bed like a wise man. Leave the hurdy-gurdy on the stair-heid; ye divna ken whit the other monkey micht hae left aboot it, and Jinnet’s awfu’ parteecular.”
Next day Mr Tod got a week’s notice to remove, and went reluctantly, for he knew good lodgings when he got them. He paid his bill when he went, too, “like a gentleman,” as Jinnet put it. “He was a rale cheery wee chap,” she said.
“I’ve seen faur worse,” Erchie admitted’. “Foolish a wee, but Nature, the Rale Oreeginal! I was gey throughither mysel’ when I was his age. Ye never tellt me yet whit ye wanted wi’ the ludging money.”
“I was jist thinkin’ I wad like to see ye wi’ a gold watch the same as Carmichael’s, next door,” said Jinnet. “It’s a thing a man at your time o’ life, and in your poseetion, should hae, and I was ettlin’ to gie ye’t for your New Year.”
“A gold watch!” cried her husband. “Whit nonsense!”
“It’s no’ nonsense at a’,” said Jinnet. “It gies a man a kind o’ bien, weel-daein’ look, and I thocht I could mak’ enough aff ludgers to buy ye yin.”
“If it was for that ye wanted the ludger, and no’ for a motor cairrage,” said Erchie, “I’m gled Tod’s awa’. You and your watch! I wad be a bonny like la-di-da wi’ a watch at the waitin’; the folks wad be feared to tip me in case I wad be angry wi’ them.”
And so Erchie has not yet got a gold watch.