18
THE
STRANGE ADVENTURES,
OF
TAM MERRILEES
A True Story.
Some years ago there dwelt in the "south side" of the gude town of Edinburgh a wight of the name of Tam Merrilees, who, saving that he occasionally took rather more of "strong waters" than he could walk steadily under, generally got the name of an honest, industrious, hard-working man. It happened one evening that Tam, in going home, met with an old crony his, who vehemently pressed him to adjourn to a favourite haunt of their's to wit a well frequented taproom in the neighbourhood. As Tam had an unfortunate weakness of never being able to withstand the pressing solieitations of a friend “to tak a gill wi hin," he was in the present instance constrained to accept Jock Thomson's invitation, more especially as Jock declared that “he would stand the damage himsel". Whether they exceeded the original stipulation of "just one gill" or Tam had been previously refreshing himself I cannot say, certain it was, that when the
