saw such competition, as to which ought to be preferred. At last, I
bethought me, to send for the different competitors, and converse
with them on the subject quietly; and I found in Thomas Shovel, the
tacksman of Whinstone-quarry, a discreet and considerate man. His
offer was, it is true, not so low as some of the others; but he had
facilities to do the work quickly, that none of the rest could
pretend to; so, upon a clear understanding of that, with the help of
the dean of guild M'Lucre's advocacy, Thomas Shovel got the
contract. At first, I could not divine what interest my old friend,
the dean of guild, had to be so earnest in behalf of the offering
contractor; in course of time, however, it spunkit out that he was a
sleeping partner in the business, by which he made a power of
profit. But saving two three carts of stones to big a dyke round
the new steading which I had bought a short time before at the town-
end, I had no benefit whatever. Indeed, I may take it upon me to
say, that should not say it, few provosts, in so great a concern,
could have acted more on a principle than I did in this; and if
Thomas Shovel, of his free-will, did, at the instigation of the dean
of guild, lay down the stones on my ground as aforesaid, the town
was not wronged; for, no doubt, he paid me the compliment at some
expense of his own profit.



CHAPTER XVI--ABOUT THE REPAIR OF THE KIRK



The repair of the kirk, the next job I took in hand, was not so
easily managed as that of the causey; for it seems, in former times,