I hae grown
auld upo' the place. What hae YE dune, my man?"
"I wadna hae muckle chance o' duin' onything, gien a' body was like
you. But did ye never hear tell o' ane 'at said:'Ye wad du naething
for nane o' mine, sae ye refeesed mysel'?"
"Deed, an' I wull refeese yersel'," returned the old man. "Sic a
chield for jaw an'cheek--saw I never nane--as the auld sang says!
Whaur on this earth cam ye frae?"
As he spoke, he gave Cosmo a round punch on the shoulder next him
that made him look from his work, and then began eying him up and
down in the most supercilious manner. He was a small, withered,
bowed man, with a thin wizened face, crowned by a much worn fur
cap. His mouth had been so long drawn down at each corner as by
weights of discontent, that it formed nearly a half-circle. His
eyebrows were lifted as far as they would go above his red-lidded
blue eyes, and there was a succession of ripply wrinkles over each
of them, which met in the middle of his forehead, so that he was
all over arches. Under his cap stuck out enormous ears, much too
large for his face. Huge veiny hands hung trembling by his sides,
but they trembled more from anger than from age.
"I tellt ye a'ready," answered Cosmo; "I come frae the auld
country."
"Deil tak the auld country! What care I for the auld country! It's
a braid place, an' langer nor it's braid, an' there's mony ane
intil't an' oot on't 'at's no warth the parritch his mither pat
intil 'im.
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