pocket, and not troubled by chick nor chiel, to make a poverty-stric'
wife and family of her, and neither hat, cap, wig, nor waistcoat to set
'em up with: be drowned if I can see it, and that's the long and the
short o't, my sonny."

Dick looked at Smart's ears, then up the hill; but no reason was
suggested by any object that met his gaze.

"For about the same reason that you did, father, I suppose."

"Dang it, my sonny, thou'st got me there!" And the tranter gave vent to
a grim admiration, with the mien of a man who was too magnanimous not to
appreciate artistically a slight rap on the knuckles, even if they were
his own.

"Whether or no," said Dick, "I asked her a thing going along the road."

"Come to that, is it? Turk! won't thy mother be in a taking! Well,
she's ready, I don't doubt?"

"I didn't ask her anything about having me; and if you'll let me speak,
I'll tell 'ee what I want to know. I just said, Did she care about me?"

"Piph-ph-ph!"

"And then she said nothing for a quarter of a mile, and then she said she
didn't know. Now, what I want to know is, what was the meaning of that
speech?" The latter words were spoken resolutely, as if he didn't care
for the ridicule of all the fathers in creation.