CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE.

_The Two Drovers._

(_Concluded from page 289._)


[Our readers must have missed, and probably with some regret,
the conclusion of the above story, as promised for insertion in
our last Number; and unaccustomed as we are to an intentional
discrepancy of this sort, (for such was the above,) we shall
consider ourselves justified in briefly stating some of the
circumstances which led to the irregularity. We are not disposed
to enter into the tilts of rival journalists, some of whom, in
taking time by the forelock, may have perhaps been rather more
enterprising than the subject warranted.[17] Nevertheless, in
the attempt to please the public, as in other races, the
youngest are often the fleetest. In the present case, the
appetite of the public had been _whetted_ with "reiterated
advertisement:" and one of our contemporaries, with more
playfulness than truth, had compared his priority to that of
_Fine-ear_ in the fairy tale. But his talisman failed, and a
young rival outstripped him; and from this quarter we were
induced to copy the first portion of the tale of _The Two
Drovers_, upon the editor's assurance of his own honesty in
obtaining the precedence, and which assurance We are still
unwilling to question: although, were we to do so, ours would
not he a solitary specimen of such ingratitude.[18] On the day
of our publishing the first portion, we received a notice to
desist from its continuance,--full of the causticity of our