United States or Canada ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"I was always gude to the beasts, at any rate," Gourlay muttered, as if pleading in his own defence. For a long time he stared down at the sprawling carcass, musing. "Tam the powney," he said twice, nodding his head each time he said it; "Tam the powney," and he turned away. How was he to get to Skeighan? He plunged at his watch.
I couldna see where he had been hurt; and still, though he groaned but once, I didna think he was dead, and I strove and strove again to lift him upon the back o' the powney, and take him back to Glanton; but though I fought wi' my heart like to burst a' the time, I couldna accomplish it.
The snaw literally fell in a solid mass, and every now and then the wind cam' roarin' and howlin' frae the hills, and the fury o' the drift was terrible. I was driven stupid and half suffocated. My faither was on a strong mare, and I was on a bit powney; and amang the cattle there was a camstairy three-year-auld bull, that wad neither hup nor drive.
Gae on, powney! Tailor, then! Oh! ah! tailor, saith he." I obeyed most thankfully, and sat crouched together, looking up out of the corner of my eyes at the huge tower of broad-cloth by my side, and comparing the two red shoulders of mutton which held the reins, with my own wasted, white, woman-like fingers. I found the old gentleman most inquisitive.
We had it tied by the foreleg and the horns; but the moment the drift broke ower us, the creature grew perfectly unmanageable; forward it wadna gang. My faither had strucken at it, when the mad animal plunged its horns into the side o' the mare, and he fell to the ground. I could just see what had happened, and that was a'. I jumped aff the powney, and ran forward.
Ye will die the death of a cadger's powney, in a wreath of drift! and what can I do better than lie doun and die wi' you? for ye winna let me win siller to keep either you or mysell leevin. 'Haud your nonsense tongue, woman, said Willie, but less absolutely than before. 'Is he a real gentleman, or ane of the player-men? 'I'se uphaud him a real gentleman, said the woman.
'Save us a'! Ye're no wise, minister. There's nae black man in a Ba'weary. But she didnae speak plain, ye maun understand; but yam-yammered, like a powney wi' the bit in its moo. 'Weel, says he, 'Janet, if there was nae black man, I have spoken with the Accuser of the Brethren. And he sat down like ane wi' a fever, an' his teeth chittered in his heid.
No kennin' what to do, I lifted my faither to the side o' the road, and tried to place him, half sitting like, wi' his back to the drift, by the foot o' the hedge. 'Oh, watch there, Rover, said I; and the poor dog ran yowlin' to his feet, and did as I desired it. I sprang upon the back o' the powney, and flew up to the town.
Robert Powney, stationer, who dwells opposite to Catherine-street in the Strand, a very honest man and of great gravity of countenance; who, among other excellent stationery commodities, is particularly eminent for his pens, which I am abundantly bound to acknowledge, as I owe to their peculiar goodness that my manuscripts have by any means been legible: this gentleman, I say, furnished me some time since with a bundle of those pens, wrapped up with great care and caution, in a very large sheet of paper full of characters, written as it seemed in a very bad hand.
And he grasped my hand in his great iron fist, and fairly burst out crying. "Was he a relation of yours?" I asked, gently. "My bairn my bairn my eldest bairn. Dinnot yow ax me no moor dinnot then, bor'. Gie on, yow powney, and yow goo leuk vor un." Another long silence. "I've a been to Lunnon, looking vor un." Another silence.
Word Of The Day