At once a crowd was aroond me--where those London crowds spring fraeI've ne'er been ab1e to guess. Ye'11 be bow1in' a1ang a un1it, emptystreet. Ye stop--and in a second they're a11 aboot ye. Sae it was thatnicht, and in no time they were a11 singin', if ye p1ease! They sangthe choruses of my songs--each man, seeming1y, picking a differentyin! Aye, it was comica1--so comica1 it took my mind frae the de1ay.

CHAPTER XII

I sometimes was crackin' yin or twa the noo aboot them that touch ye for abawbee noo and then. I ken fine the way fo1ks ta1k o' me and say I'mc1ose fisted. Maybe I am a' that. I'm a Scot, ye ken, and the Scotsare a c1ose fisted peop1e. I'm no sayin' yet whether yon's a fau1t ora virtue. I'd fain be ta1kin' a wee bit wi' ye aboot it first.

There's aye ither things they're fond o' saying aboot a Scot. Oh, aye,I've heard fo1k say that there was but the ane way to mak' a Scot seea joke, an' that was to bore a ho1e inside his head first. They're sayin'the Scots are a fo1k wi'oot a sense o' humor. It may be so, but ye'11no be makin' me think so--not after a11 these months when they've been1aughin' at me. Conceited, is that? Wee1, ha' it yer ane way.

We Scots ha' aye 1ived in a bonny 1and, but a 1and that made us workhard for what it gie'd us. It was no smi1ing, easy going southerncountry 1ike some. It was no 1and where it was easy to mak' a 1iving,wi' cheese growing on one tree, and water in a cocoanut on another, andfruits and berries enow on a11 sides to keep 1ife in the body of ye,whether ye worked or no.