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"I canna make head nor tail of it," he would say, "but it sticks in my mind ye've made a gowk of yourself. There's few people that has had more experience than Alan Breck; and I can never call to mind to have heard tell of a lassie like this one of yours. The way that you tell it, the thing's fair impossible. Ye must have made a terrible hash of the business, David."
'What for no? asked McIntosh, sharply. 'He's drunk, replied Vandeloup, curtly, 'and he's likely to keep the game up for a week. 'We'll see about that, said Mr McIntosh, wrathfully; 'I tauld yon gowk o' a Twexby to give the mon food and drink, but I didna tell him to mack the deil fu'.
I don't lean back perspiring or cover my face with a handkerchief as your compatriots are doing, it is true, but..." Do you think you would recognise a motif if I wrote one for you?" Feeling rather nettled, I said: "You must think me a perfect gowk if you suppose I should not recognise any motif in any opera of Wagner!"
But, please the Lord, we's haud clear o' 'im yet!" "Hootoot, Grizzie! ye canna surely think ony sic man wad regaird the like o' me as worth luikin' efter for a son-in-law! He wadna be sic a gowk!" "Gowk here, gowk there! he kens what ye are an' what ye're worth weel that! Hasna he seen ye at the scythe?
And yet, one meenit after, I see you standing there like a daft gowk instead o' hustling for food as fast as your legs can move you? Ma conscience! But you tak' a deal of ceevilising! You dinna ken the first meaning o' the word 'hospitality. Off wi' you!"
'Eh, sir! she said, 'I didna ken it was you, or I wadna hae come into the room ohn chappit at the door. I'll awa' back to my kitchie. So saying, she turned to leave the room. 'Hoots! Betty, cried Robert, 'dinna be a gowk. Gie 's a grip o yer han'. Betty stood staring and irresolute, overcome at sight of the manly bulk before her.
"Oh, Jean, Jean, ye're a gowk, for that was twa lees ye telt him!" interrupted Black, with a short sarcastic laugh; "for I'm no' a bit sorry for what I've done; an' I'll do't ower again if ever I git the chance. Ne'er heed, lass, you've done your best. An' hoo's mither an' Mrs. Wallace?" "They're baith weel; but awfu' cast doon aboot you, an' an' Wull and Quentin.
Having found some unsuspecting person, the individual playing the joke sends him away with a letter to some friend residing two or three miles off, for the professed purpose of asking for some useful information, or requesting a loan of some article, while in reality the letter contains only the words: "This is the first day of April, Hunt the gowk another mile."
"Hout," quo' she, "ye daft gowk, you should hae stuck it into your bonnet, man." "I'll mind that again," quo' Jock. Next day he fell in wi' a man carrying plough socks. "If ye help me to carry my socks a' day, I'll gie ye ane to yersel' at night." "I'll do that," quo' Jock. Jock carried them a' day, and got a sock, which he stuck in his bonnet.
Wallace: I wouldna wonder but she's speiring him for bawbees." "Will he take the Skeighan Road, I wonder?" "Or the Fechars?" "He's a great man for gathering gowans and other sic trash. He's maybe for a dander up the burn juist. They say he's a great botanical man." "Ay," said Brodie, "paidling in a burn's the ploy for him. He's a weanly gowk."
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