The Miller brought to Book. 61 



that Sandy had told him. The next time that the 

 bagpipes were questioned, the laird said, " We will put 

 it to the test, Sandy. You shall go down to Glasgow 

 with me to-morrow, and then you can show them 

 whether you can play the bagpipes or not." Sandy 

 did not seem overjoyed at the proposal. When at 

 Glasgow, he took the laird to the Venal in the High 

 Street, and, although he had, according to his own 

 statement, lived in the same lodgings for two years, 

 he could not find the house, and no one had heard of 

 any one of the name he gave being in the Venal. 

 This satisfied the laird. One thing after another 

 now came out against poor Sandy, till he was dis- 

 missed in disgrace. 



Somewhere about this time an account came in to 

 Mr. McAsland from the miller, for corn which he 

 had ground. As David had always taken the corn 

 to the mill, and brought the meal back, the account 

 was shown to him, to see whether he remembered 

 taking to the mill what was charged for. He took 

 the account to look it over at his leisure at night. 



Now it must be explained that he had been trying 

 to learn book-keeping, and for that purpose had three 

 small books ruled with money columns, a day-book, 

 a ledger, and a cash-book. He had made an attempt 

 to include the transactions of the farm, so far as he 

 personally had anything to do with them. Thus he 

 had entered how many times he had been at the mill, 

 with so many bags of corn, and when he had been 

 back for the meal, with dates to all the entries. But 

 there was one load less in his book than there was in 

 the miller's account. 



