This soothed the dominie, who returned, and said mildly,—
“By-the-by, Clinkum, I want a leister of your making, for I see no other tradesman makes them so well. A five-grained one make it; at your own price.”
“Very weel, sir. When will you be needing it?”
“Not till the end of the close time.”
“Ay, ye may gar the three auld anes do till then.”
“What do you wish to insinuate, sir? Would you infer, because I have three leisters, that therefore I am a breaker of the laws? That I, who am placed here as a pattern and monitor of the young and rising generation, should be the first to set them an example of insubordination?”
“Ye ken, that just beats a’ in words; but we ken what we ken, for a’ that, maister.”
“You had better take a little care what you say, Mr Clinkum; just a little care. I do not request you to take particular care, for of that your tongue is incapable, but a very little is a correlative of consequences. And mark you—don’t go to say that I said this or that about a ghost, or mentioned such a ridiculous story.”
“The crabbitness o’ that body beats the world!” said the smith to himself, as the dominie went halting homeward.
The very next man who entered the smithy door was no other than John Broadcast, the new laird’s hind, who had also been hind to the late laird for many years, and who had no sooner said his errand, than the smith addressed him thus:—