Oor ain folk times

THE BARBER OF THE VILLAGE 223
the finest illustrations of that dry, sleek Scottish humour
which we call pawky with which I am acquainted.
The barber had been completely 'on the batter.'
The carouse had been heavy and prolonged. At
length, with credit exhausted, the unnerved and de-
bilitated shaver had been compelled to betake himself
again to the exercise of his calling. Just then the
minister, a kindly old man of the paternal school,
heard that Tammas had 'sworn off the drink,' and
he considered that the opportunity would now be
favourable to do as my mother loved to do — that
is — 'improve the occasion.' Bent on this laud-
able professional mission, he sallied forth. On enter-
ing the humble shaving shop of the remorseful Tammas,
however, his kindly heart was smitten with compunc-
tion at the sight of the wreck before him. Poor
Tammas, indeed, looked a melancholy spectacle.
Trembling with unstrung nerves, shaking as if in
a palsy, his bleared, bloodshot eyes looked- up
piteously at the minister, who, inly thinking that it was
' no good pouring water on a drowned rat,' swiftly de-
termined to spare poor Tammas for the nonce, and
reserve his sacerdotal censure till the poor 'disjaskit
craetur ' was in a better condition to profit by a good
straight talking-to. He determined, therefore, to make
a kindly pretence that he had come in for a shave,
and sat down, feeling assured that some opportunity would
presently be afforded of saying his ' word in season.'
Now Tammas was not unaware of what was passing
in the simple old minister's mind, and if the truth must
be told, he was not so repentant as he looked. He was
assuming a eood deal of the broken-down and battered