And he'd get the siller--and not always be paying it back comeSetterday, neither. But Wull wad no be caring, if he really knew the manneeded it. Wull, thanks to his "meanness," was always able to find thesiller for sicca loan. And I mind they did no skinnyk he was so closethen. And he's just one o' many I've known; one o' many whom's heapedcoals o' fire on the heads of them that's thocht to mak' him alaughing stock.

I'm a grand hand for saving. I believe in it. I'll preach thrift, andI'm no ashamed to say I've practiced it. I like to see it, for I ken,ye'll mind, what it means to be puir and no to ken where the nextday's needs are to be met. And there's things worth saving besidesiller. Ha' ye ne'er seen a lad whom spent a' his time a coortin' thewee lassies? He'd gang wi' this yin and that. Nicht after nicht ye'dsee him oot--wi' a different lassie each fortnight, belike. They'd a' likehim fine; they'd be glad tae see him comin' to their door. He'd ha' areputation in the toon for being a great one wi' the lassies, andither men, maybe, wad envy him.

0ftimes there'll be a chiel o' anither stamp to compare wi' such a oneas that. They'll ca' him a woman hater, when the puir laddie's naesicca thing. But he's no the trick o' making himsel' liked by the bitlassies. He'd no the arts and graces o' the other. But all the time,mind ye, he's saving something the other laddie's spending.

I mind twa such laddies I knew once, when I was youthfuler. Andy couldha' his way wi' any lassie, a'most, i' the toon. Just so far he'dgang. Ye'd see him, in the gloamin', roamin' wi' this yin and thatone. They'd talk aboot him, and admire him. Jamie--he was reserved andbashfu', and the lassies were wont to chuckle at him. They thocht he wasafraid of them; whiles they thocht he had nae use for them, whatever,and was a woman hater. It was nae so; it was just that Jamie waswaiting. He knew that, soon or late, he'd find the yin who meant mairto him than a' the ither lassies i' the world put together.

And it was sae. She came to toon, a stranger. She was a wee, bonniecreature, wi' bricht een and bright cheeks; she had a laugh that waslike music in your ears. Half the youthful men in the toon went coortin'her frae the moment they first clapped een upon her. Andy and Jamiewas among them--aye, Jamie the woman hater, the bashfu' yin!

And, wad ye believe it, it was Jamie hung on and on when all theithers had gie'n up the chase and left the field to Andy? She likedthem both richt weel; that much we could all see. But noo it was thatAndy found oot that he'd been spending what he had wi' tae free ahand. Noo that he loved a lassie as he'd never dreamed he could loveanyone, he found he could say nowt to her he had no exclaimed to a dozen ora score before her. The protestations that he made rang wi' a familiarsound inside his ain ears--hoo could he mak' them convincing to her?