SCOTCH HUMOUR 71 



the death of his wife, it was only the announcement 

 of it, that he was deploring. A brown owl had 

 flown, some nights before, over his cottage, and had 

 hooted repeatedly in the back-yard. The garments 

 of the family had long been shabby, and now that 

 the death of the wife was imminent, he had thought 

 that suits of mourning, if made at once, would serve 

 for the next Sunday services, as well as for the 

 more sombre service that was so soon to follow. 

 Die the mother did very soon afterwards, and what 

 between the " boding owl" and the mourning 

 garments which were already worn for her, she must 

 have died, one would think, many times before her 

 death. Meyer does not say so, but I cannot help 

 thinking that that gardener must have been a 

 Scotchman. The dour, the grim humour of the 

 scene, the making the best of both worlds, the 

 delicious economy, domestic and religious above 

 all, the " Sabbath blacks " all mark the story as 

 coming from the north of the Tweed. Is it not 

 something of a piece with the Scotchman who, 

 when he had been condemned to death, on the 

 clearest evidence, for the murder of his wife, and 

 who when his Counsel, liking his looks, came to 

 visit him in his condemned cell, and telling him that 

 there was no hope of a reprieve, nor did he deserve 



