his ain."

"Hear til him!" cried the cobbler, with hearty approbation.

"Ye ken," Donal went on, "a' the languages o' the earth cam, or luik
as gien they had come, frae ane, though we're no jist dogsure o'
that. There's my mither's ain Gaelic, for enstance: it's as auld,
maybe aulder nor the Greek; onygait, it has mair Greek nor Laitin
words intil 't, an' ye ken the Greek 's an aulder tongue nor the
Laitin. Weel, gien we could work oor w'y back to the auldest
grit-gran'mither-tongue o' a', I'm thinkin' it wad come a kin o' sae
easy til 's, 'at, wi' the impruvt faculties o' oor h'avenly
condition, we micht be able in a feow days to haud communication wi'
ane anither i' that same, ohn stammert or hummt an' hawt."

"But there's been sic a heap o' things f'un' oot sin' syne, i' the
min' o' man, as weel 's i' the warl' ootside," said Andrew, "that
sic a language wad be mair like a bairn's tongue nor a mither's, I'm
thinkin', whan set against a' 'at wad be to speyk aboot!"

"Ye're verra richt there, I dinna doobt. But hoo easy wad it be for
ilk ane to bring in the new word he wantit, haein' eneuch common
afore to explain 't wi'! Afore lang the language wad hae intil 't
ilka word 'at was worth haein' in ony language 'at ever was spoken
sin' the toor o' Babel."

"Eh, sirs, but it's dreidfu' to think o' haein' to learn sae
muckle!" said the old woman. "I'm ower auld an' dottlet!"

Her husband laughed again.