4S THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



band, Azo, ordered his hobstreperous and houda- 

 cious * hof spring,* Mr Hugo, her dewoted lovier, 

 to have his head amputated for a heart complaint, 

 vide the Poets. Leave me to write the directions 

 on the label of the bottle in Hindostani, and give 

 the spell time enough to work, which it will do 

 after she has swizzled a few glasses more or less, 

 then you drop in upon her, and if her heart will 

 not have become sufficiently softened to grant you 

 any little request or favour you may have to make 

 — oh, you sly dog, doctor ! — call me — too late for 

 dinner." 



" Oh, ye bauld chiel o' the deil 1 ye Irregulars are 

 maist as bad as ranting wild Irishmen t " exclaimed 

 the doctor, when I had concluded my oration ; " but 

 I do not just know at present what better to pro- 

 pose, so boy come here, ye ne'er-do-weel, and fetch 

 me the gin." 



" Weel, weel ! " he continued, as the flask was 

 produced, " that '11 do ; there 's maist two-thirds o* 

 the bottle left, and she '11 just fill up the rest wi' 

 strong tea, to disguise it, so that she '11 no be 

 suspected o' having only one salubrious concoction 

 in the shop, as that old skinflint, Duncan McQuae, 

 the auld Glasgow medicaster, where I performed 

 the rudiments at twa and saxpence a week, used to 

 prepare for the poor townsfolk, wha got their ain 

 bottles filled for twopence. 



"Ah, gentlemen, you'll hardly believe" — here the 

 doctor made a fearfully wry face — " that this child 



