[Footnote 4: Night-cap.]
"'It'll never be on the pow o' an Ayrshire drover,' says she, snell as the north wind.
"'An' what for that?' says I.
"'The yairn 's owre dear,' says Tibby. 'It cost twa baskets o' mushrooms in Dumfries market!'
"'An' what price paid ye for the mushrooms that the airn should be owre dear?' said I.
"'Ou, nocht ava,' says Tibby. 'I juist gat them whaur the Ayrshire drover gat the coo. I fand them in a field!'
"Then everybody _haa-haa_ed with laughing. She had me there, I wull alloo—me that had been a drover," said Tammas Thackanraip.
"But that was naething to discourage ye, Tammock," said I. "That was juist her bit joke."
"I ken—I ken," said Tammock; "but hand a wee—I'm no' dune yet. So after they had dune laughin', I telled them o' the last man that was hangit at the Grassmarket o' Edinburgh. There was three coonts in the dittay against him: first, that he was fand on the king's highway withoot due cause; second, he wan'ered in his speech; and, thirdly, he owned that he cam' frae Gallowa'.
"This kind o' squared the reckoning, but it hadna the success o' the Ayrshireman and the coo, for they a' belonged to Gallowa' that was in the kitchen,"