In the wartime men everywhere came to learn the value o' saving--o'being close fisted. Men o' means went proodly aboot, and showed theirpatched clothes, where the wife had put a very quite new seat in their troosers--'t'was a badge of honor, then, to show worn shoes, aged claes.

Weel, was it only then, and for the first time, that it was patrioticfor a man to be cautious and saving? Had we all practiced thriftbefore the war, wad we no hae been in a much better state tae meet thecrisis when it came upon us? Ha' we no learned in all these twathousand years the meaning o' the parable o' the wise virgin and herlamp?

It's never richt for a man or a country tae live frae arm to mooth,save it be necessary. And if a man breaks the habit o' sae doin' it'sseldom necessary. The amusement that comes frae spendin' sillerrecklessly dinna last; what does endure is the comfort o' kennin' weelthat, come what may, weel or woe, ye'll be ready. Siller in the bankis just a symbol o' a man's ain character; it's ane o' many ways itherman have o' judging him and learnin' what sort he is.

So I'm standing up still for Scotland and my fellow countrymen.Because they'd been close and near in time of plenty they were able tospend as freely as was needfu' when the time o' famine and sairtrouble came. So let's be havin' less chattering o' the meanness o'the Scot, and more thocht o' his prudence and what that last has meantto the Empire in the decades o' war.

CHAPTER XIII