"'Deed, an' I dinna see muckle joke in that last mysel'," said my wife, who also belonged to Galloway.
"And I'll be bound neither did the poor lad in the Grassmarket!" I put in, edgeways, taking my legs down off the jambs, for the peats had burned up, and enough is as good as a feast.
Then Tammas was silent for a good while, smoking slowly, taking out his pipe whiles and looking at the shank of it in a very curious manner.
I knew that we were coming to the kernel of the story now.
"So the nicht slippit on," continued the narrator, "an' the lads that had to be early up in the morning gaed awa yin by yin, an' I was left my lane wi' Tibby. She was gaun aboot here an' there gey an' brisk, clatterin' dishes an' reddin' corners.
"'Hae a paper an' read us some o' the news, gin ye hae nocht better to say,' said she.
"She threw me a paper across the table that I kenned for Maxwell's by the crunkle o' the sheets.
"I ripit a' my pooches, yin after the ither.
"'I misdoot I maun hae comed awa' withoot my specs, Tibby,' says I at last, when I could come on them nowhere.
"So we talked a bit langer, and she screeved aboot, pittin' things into their places.