drummer an end's errand with them, which was altogether a proceeding
of a method and exactness so by common, that it not only quenched
the envy of spite utterly out, but contributed more and more to give
me weight and authority with the community, until I had the whole
sway and mastery of the town.



CHAPTER XXVI--OF THE PUBLIC LAMPS



Death is a great reformer of corporate bodies, and we found, now and
then, the benefit of his helping hand in our royal burgh. From the
time of my being chosen into the council; and, indeed, for some
years before, Mr Hirple had been a member, but, from some secret and
unexpressed understanding among us, he was never made a bailie; for
he was not liked; having none of that furthy and jocose spirit so
becoming in a magistrate of that degree, and to which the gifts of
gravity and formality make but an unsubstantial substitute. He was,
on the contrary, a queer and quistical man, of a small stature of
body, with an outshot breast, the which, I am inclined to think, was
one of the main causes of our never promoting him into the
ostensible magistracy; besides, his temper was exceedingly brittle;
and in the debates anent the weightiest concerns of the public, he
was apt to puff and fiz, and go off with a pluff of anger like a
pioye; so that, for the space of more than five-and-twenty years, we
would have been glad of his resignation; and, in the heat of
argument, there was no lack of hints to that effect from more than
one of his friends, especially from Bailie Picken, who was himself a