“I wad like to hae a pair o’ tap boots,” replied Mr Aikin, shortly, and without further preamble, although he had in reality bestowed a good deal of thought on the subject previously; indeed, a dim undefined vision of top boots had been floating before his mind’s eye for nearly a month before it took the distinct shape of such a determination as he was now about to express.
“Aweel, Thomas,” replied his better half, with equal brevity, “ye had better get a pair.”
“They’re decent lookin’ things,” rejoined Mr Aikin.
“Indeed are they,” said his indulgent spouse,—“very decent and respectable, Thomas.”
“Rather flashy though, I doubt, for the like o’ me,” quoth Mr Aikin.
“I dinna see that, Thomas, sae lang as ye’re able to pay for them,” remarked Mrs Aikin.
“No so very able, my dear,” responded her husband; “but I wad like to hae a pair for a’ that, just to wear on Sundays and collection days.”
“Aweel, Thomas, get them; and what for no?” replied Mrs Aikin, “since your mind’s bent on them. We’ll save the price o’ them aff something else.”
We need not pursue further the amiable colloquy which took place on this fatal night between Mr Aikin and his wife. Suffice it to say, that that night fixed Mr Aikin’s resolution to order a pair of top boots. On the very next day he was measured for the said boots; and late on the Saturday evening following, the boots, with their tops carefully papered, to protect them from injury, were regularly delivered by an apprentice boy into the hands of Mrs Aikin herself, for her husband’s interest.
As Mr Aikin was not himself in the house when the boots were brought home, they were placed in a corner of the parlour to await his pleasure; and certainly nothing could look more harmless or more inoffensive than did these treacherous boots, as they now stood, with their muffled tops and shining feet, in the corner of Mr Aikin’s parlour. But alas! alas! shortsighted mortals that we are, that could not foresee the slightest portion of the evils with which these rascally boots were fraught! To shorten our story as much as possible, we proceed to say that Mr Aikin at length came home, and being directed to where the boots lay, he raised them up in one hand, holding a candle in the other; and having turned them round and round several times, admiring their gloss and fair proportions, laid them down again with a calm quiet smile of satisfaction, and retired to bed.