'And a fine harvest, apparently,' continued Waverley, following up his first attack.
'Aye, the aits will be got bravely in: but the farmers, deil burst them, and the corn-mongers will make the auld price gude against them as has horses till keep.'
'You perhaps act as quarter-master, sir?'
'Aye, quarter-master, riding-master, and lieutenant,' answered this officer of all work. 'And, to be sure, wha's fitter to look after the breaking and the keeping of the poor beasts than mysell, that bought and sold every ane o' them?'
'And pray, sir, if it be not too great a freedom, may I beg to know where we are going just now?'
'A fule's errand, I fear,' answered this communicative personage.
'In that case,' said Waverley, determined not to spare civility, 'I should have thought a person of your appearance would not have been found on the road.'
'Vera true, vera true, sir,' replied the officer, 'but every why has its wherefore. Ye maun ken, the laird there bought a' thir beasts frae' me to munt his troop, and agreed to pay for them according to the necessities and prices of the time. But then he hadna the ready penny, and I hae been advised his bond will not be worth a boddle against the estate, and then I had a' my dealers to settle wi' at Martinmas; and so as he very kindly offered me this commission, and as the auld Fifteen [The Judges of the Supreme Court of Session in Scotland are proverbially termed, among the country people, The Fifteen.] wad never help me to my siller for sending out naigs against the Government, why, conscience! sir, I thought my best chance for payment was e'en to GAE OUT mysell; and ye may judge, sir, as I hae dealt a' my life in halters, I think na mickle o' putting my craig in peril of a St. Johnstone's tippet.' [TO GO OUT, or TO HAVE BEEN OUT, in Scotland, was a conventional phrase similar to that of the Irish respecting a man having been UP, both having reference to an individual who had been engaged in insurrection. It was accounted ill-breeding in Scotland, about forty years since, to use the phrase rebellion or rebel, which might be interpreted by some of the parties present as a personal insult. It was also esteemed more polite even for stanch Whigs to denominate Charles Edward the Chevalier, than to speak of him as the Pretender; and this kind of accommodating courtesy was usually observed in society where individuals of each party mixed on friendly terms.]
'You are not, then, by profession a soldier?' said Waverley.
'Na, na; thank God,' answered this doughty partisan, 'I wasna bred at sae short a tether; I was brought up to hack and manger. I was bred a horse-couper, sir; and if I might live to see you at Whitson-tryst, or at Stagshawbank, or the winter fair at Hawick, and ye wanted a spanker that would lead the field, I'se be caution I would serve ye easy; for Jamie Jinker was ne'er the lad to impose upon a gentleman. Ye're a gentleman, sir, and should ken a horse's points; ye see that through-ganging thing that Balmawhapple's on; I selled her till him. She was bred out of Lick-the-Ladle, that wan the king's plate at Caverton-Edge, by Duke Hamilton's White-foot,' &c. &c. &c.