Scotland/Scots > Wilson's tales of the Borders and of Scotland > Volume 3

136
TALES OF THE BORDERS.
can afford to be prigged, or beat down from penny to
penny, till you all but swear that the purchaser has the
article below prime cost. In all your travels, never lodge
at an inn or public house. One single instance of this,
well authenticated, would ruin your trade for ever; for
every lad and lass, every guidman and guidwife, would
infallibly conclude, that, if you could afford such expensive
accommodation, it must undoubtedly be at their cost—it
must be exacted from the ribbons, shawls, gown and waist¬
coat pieces, with which you supply them. You must,
therefore, fix, as soon as may be, upon your points or
stations of regulated half-yearly or yearly calls ; and this
is undoubtedly one of the nicest and most delicate points
of your profession, and must be managed, not so much on
any general principle, as by a reference to character and
circumstance. There are, undoubtedly, many farm-houses,
from which the sooner that you depart, and relieve the
dogs of their clamour, the better. But this is not their
universal or even general character. "Whenever you find
the guidwife couthy and heartsome, the guidman gruff,
and frank, and honest, and the daughters young and
buxom, there deposit your pack on Saturday night, and
if greatly pressed, do not lift it again till Tuesday or "Wed¬
nesday morning. Monday or Tuesday, if you are up to
your trade, can be advantageously employed in exhibiting,
bit by bit, and at intervals, the wonders of the pack; in
retailing, with a corresponding parsimony, your country
and city news; and in disposing of as many articles on
trust (for you must never deal for ready money only), as
may entitle you to announce your return with new patterns
and fashions that day six or twelve months. To the sheep
or stock-farmer in particular, your periodical visits will be
the welcomest: for, as he lies at a distance from shops or
cities, his wants will be numerous, and his knowledge of
the market price imperfect in proportion. To him, too,