place and preferment of his own accord. I therefore assumed a
coothy and obliging demeanour towards my customers and the community
in general; and sometimes even with the very beggars I found a
jocose saying as well received as a bawbee, although naturally I
dinna think I was ever what could be called a funny man, but only
just as ye would say a thought ajee in that way. Howsever, I soon
became, both by habit and repute, a man of popularity in the town,
in so much that it was a shrewd saying of old James Alpha, the
bookseller, that "mair gude jokes were cracked ilka day in James
Pawkie's shop, than in Thomas Curl, the barber's, on a Saturday
night."



CHAPTER II--A KITHING



I could plainly discern that the prudent conduct which I had adopted
towards the public was gradually growing into effect. Disputative
neighbours made me their referee, and I became, as it were, an
oracle that was better than the law, in so much that I settled their
controversies without the expense that attends the same. But what
convinced me more than any other thing that the line I pursued was
verging towards a satisfactory result, was, that the elderly folk
that came into the shop to talk over the news of the day, and to
rehearse the diverse uncos, both of a national and a domestic
nature, used to call me bailie and my lord; the which jocular
derision was as a symptom and foretaste within their spirits of what
I was ordained to be. Thus was I encouraged, by little and little,