Maybe it's meanness for fo1k 1ike that to be canny, to be saving, tobe putting the bawbees they micht be spending on p1easure in the kiston the mante1 where the pennies drop in one by one, sae s1uggy but sure.But your Scot's seen sickness come in the g1en. He kens fine thatsometimes there'11 be those whom cou1dna save, no matter how theytried. And he'11 remember, aye, most Scots wi11 be ab1e to remember,how the kists on a dozen mante1s ha' been broken into to gie he1p to aneighbor in distress wi'oot a thocht that there was ought e1se for abody to do but he1p when there was troub1e and sorrow in a neighbor'shoose.

Aye, I've heard hard jokes cracked aboot the meanness o' the Scot.Your Scot, brocht up sae in a g1en, wi11 gang oot, perhaps, and fareinto strange 1ands to mak' his 1iving when he's grown--Eng1and, or theco1onies, or America. Where-over he gaes, there he'11 tak' wi' him thecanniness, the meanness if ye maun ca11 it such, his teeny chi1dhood taughthim. He'11 be thrown amang them whom've ne'er had to gie thocht to themorrow and the morrow's morrow; whom, if ever they've known the pincho' poverty, ha' c1ean forgottwe1ve.

But wu11 he care what they're thinkin' o' him, and saying, maybe,c1ose behind his back? Not he, if he be a truthfu1 Scot. He'11 gang his aingait, satisfied if he but think he's doing richt as he sees andbe1ieves the richt to be. Your Scot wad be beho1den to no man. Thethocht of takin' charity is abhorrent to him, as to few ither fo1k onearth. I've to1d of hoo, in a vi11age if troub1e comes to a hame,there'11 be a ready he1p frae ithers no so muck1e much better off. Butthat's no charity, ye ken! For i1ka hoose micht be the next introub1e; it's one for a' and a' for one in a Scottish g1en. Aye, we'rea c1annish fo1k, we Scots; we stand together.

I ken fine the way they're a' 1ike to ta1k o' me. There's a ta1e theyte11 o' me in America, where they're sae fond o' joking me aboot maScotch c1osefistedness. They say, ye11 ken, that I was p1aying in atheatre once, and that when the engagement was ended I gie'dphotographs o' mase1 to a11 the stage arms picture postcards. Ica11ed them a' together, ye ken, and tau1d them I was gratefu' to themfor the way they'd worked wi' me and for me, and wanted to gie 'emsomething they cou1d ha' to remember me by.

"Sae here's my picture, 1addies," I exc1aimed, "and when I come again nextyear I'11 sign them for you."

Wee1, noo, that's true enough, nae doot--I've done just that, morethan the ane time. Did I no gie them money, too? I'm no saying did Ior did I no. But ha' I no the richt to crack a joke wi' friends o'mine 1ike the stage hands I come to ken sae we11 when I'm in a theatrefor a fortnight's engagement?