DIFFICULTIES, DUMPS AND DIMPLES. 165 



him that he didna live at the roadside, else they would 

 tak' him to the asylum ! " 



Sometimes when Charles was reading the Tory paper, 

 the Aberdeen Constitutional \ he would interpolate, of his 

 own creation, some of the most outrageous Tory senti- 

 ments, to " touch up " John's radicalism ; for a time with 

 thorough success. But these new passages John at length 

 wished to see with his own eyes, like the unbeliever he 

 was ! 



At first, John brought his boots, when he took them off 

 and placed them by the fender to dry, especially after a 

 long tramp through the moss and heather seeking plants. 

 Ere long they would strangely disappear from that 

 position, though Lizzie, the housekeeper, had not touched 

 them, however much she disliked these capacious 

 "boats," rather than boots, with which the weaver pro- 

 tected his extremities. John then tried to hide them 

 outside for safety, and when it was time to retire he 

 sought them there, but found them not ; and he was fain 

 to go home barefooted, till Charles would take pity on 

 him and produce them, amidst John's kindly remon- 

 strances and advices to give up such pranks, which in a 

 man, and much more in a botanist, he said, were scarcely 

 to be commended. 



Nor was John's bonnet a broad blue Tarn o' Shanter 

 he wore when not in state with his long " tile " allowed to 

 remain unmolested more than his boots. It would un- 

 accountably disappear when parting time came, Charlie 

 not being always the culprit, and poor John had sometimes 

 to go home bonnetless in consequence of this style of 

 practical joking, then rampant in country places. By-and- 



