1 62 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



by his botanical studies, while often making him very 

 uncomfortable, she mainly succeeded in only rendering 

 herself permanently unhappy. It would take a long 

 chapter to detail the numberless petty annoyances to 

 which she subjected him, in angry speeches and long 

 moody silences, in preparing or neglecting his food, and 

 in attacking like vulnerable points in the most philosophical 

 armour. But, on the whole, she missed her mark as far 

 as regarded the peace-loving, hilarious, and generally 

 imperturbable object of her ill-natured attentions. John 

 often told Charles that he should not stand it he 

 wouldn't. " Sal man, Charlie," says he, " she widna do 

 wi' me as she does wi' you ; I would sune pat a pin in 

 her nose ! " a figure of speech drawn from the custom 

 of fastening a wooden pin in the nose of an obstreperous 

 pig, to keep her from burrowing where she should not, 

 and scriptural in eveiy point except its substitution of a 

 pin for a hook. 



The weaver, as a friend of the gardener's, was no 

 favourite with the housekeeper. She said they dirtied 

 her kitchen with their weeds and big boots, and so John 

 had to leave his at the door and enter on his stocking 

 soles; and Charles did the same. In this way, all their 

 botanical work had to be carried on shoeless, even in mid- 

 winter. When their specimens had been all duly spread 

 out on the table and floor, and they were just in the very 

 middle of an earnest evening's study, at an absurdly early 

 hour she would insist on their stopping, and at once 

 proceed to extinguish the fire, raking it out to the last 

 embers, and leaving no materials in the house to rekindle 

 it with. She would then retire to her room at the other 



