The secretary looked surprised, as well he micht!!

and I micht just as weel be sharing between us.

And it micht be we could see him sometimes.

deep the loch micht grow to be suddenly; sometimes there are deep holes in such places, that ye walk into when ye're the least expecting to find one.

"Ye micht fall in again, Harry, and I'll just be makin' siccar that ane of us twa gets hame the nicht!"

Dear knows we had escapades enough that micht ha' landed us in the lock up!

And for a long time I could make him as red as a beet and as angry as I pleased by just whispering in his ear, in the innocentest way: "Hoo's yer pinkie the noo, Mac?" It was at Creetown, our next stopping place, that we had an adventure that micht weel ha' had serious results.

They micht be alane, I thocht, but wi' loving sons and daughters supporting them and caring for them, even though their affairs called them to widely scattered places.

He talked of how if one gie a dog a bad name one micht as well droon him and ha' done.

And we believed in him enow to think he micht be richt, and that if he had the chance he'd settle doon and be a gude man enow.

So it went on, for the years, till, in the end, we gied him twenty pounds more we'd put awa' for a rainy day that he micht tak' himself' off oot o' our sicht and leave us be in peace.

There's a bit story I micht as weel tell ye mesel', for yell hear it frae Mac in any case, if ever ye chance to come upon him.

His mither and I spent many a lang evening dreaming of his future and what micht be coming his way.

I'd nowt to think of but the wee laddie, and there was time enow before it would be richt to be sending him offtime enow for me to earn as muckle siller as he micht need.

And by this time I was a veteran singer, as you micht say.

It's a digression, maybe, but I micht tell ye hoo a new song gets into my list.

I smiled to mysel' and went back to ma dressin' room to see what micht be coming.

Wad they but put half the cleverness into honest toil that they do into writin' me a letter or speerin' a tale o' was to wring my heart, they could earn a' the siller they micht need for themselves.

When they wad be togither they had to flee tae some such dead spot as this, or flaunt their love for one another in a busy street, where all who would micht laugh at them, as folk ha' a way o' doing, thoughtlessly, when they see the miracle o' young love, that is sae old that it is always young.

I was no takin' the gramophone sae seriously as I micht ha' done, perhapsI'd no thocht, as I ha' since.

The first nicht success micht ha' been an accident; the second aye tells the tale.

"An' what micht it be?" "I was jist thinkin'," answered Sandy, "that it was aboot time ye were paying me that penny!"

This fact seemed to evoke considerable surprise from the company, but a cautious Scotsman, of a practical, matter-of-fact turn of mind, who had listened with much unconcern, drily remarked, "It's a peety but ye had been in Paradise, and there micht na hae been ony faa.

"Weel, weel, sir," said Donald, with some hesitation, "may-be; I'll no say but it micht."

o' a thing lik a snagged foal, an' gie the tod such a dirl 'ith heed, that he kilt him deed's a herrin, an' we micht a' witness the same by gannin to the Shouther o' Birkin Brae."