The sometime schoolteachers were intelligent, very well read in Cowper,
Pollock, and Sir Walter Scott, as well as in the Bible, and withal
possessed of a fair sense of humour. The old lady and Coristine were a
perpetual feast to one another. "Sure!" said he, "it's bagmen the
ignorant creatures have taken us for more than once, and it's a genuine
one I am now, Mrs. Hill," at which the good woman laughed, and recited
the Scotch ballad of the "Wee Wifukie coming frae the fair," who fell
asleep, when "by came a packman wi' a little pack," and relieved her of
her purse and placks, and "clippit a' her gowden locks sae bonnie and
sae lang." This she did in excellent taste, leaving out any
objectionable expressions in the original. When she repeated the words
of the Wifukie at the end of each verse, "This is nae me," consequent on
her discovery that curls and money were gone, the lawyer laughed
heartily, causing the pair in front, who were discussing educational
matters, to look round for the cause of the merriment. "I'm the man,"
shouted Coristine to them, "the packman wi' a little pack.
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