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No, no: I am too tough a customer for that. To use a favourite expression of a great captain, (ye can 'whistle o'er the lave o't,") "them that meddles wi' me, meddles wi' a droll ane."
To those members of the Renfrew County Kilwinning Lodge, who had such a high appreciation of me, as to desire that I would dedicate this work to that body, I beg to tender my sincere thanks. I can assure them that I would have done so with much pleasure, but, as this was my first literary work, and likely to stamp Paisley as the seat of Genius, I thought my co-literateurs had the first and best claim.
Should the sale of this work add to my emoluments while living, as it will establish my fame when dead; and if its perusal should be the means of arousing the dormant or lazy energies of some of my fellow-townsmen, and thereby develope and promote habits of industry, then this production will not be
Paisley, July, 1857.
