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TALES OF MY LANDLORD.

an unco braw shelter for the lambs in a severe morning like this."

"Aye, but ye ken we maun hae turnips for the lang sheep, billie, and muckle hard work to get them, baith wi' the pleugh and the howe; and that wad sort ill wi' sitting on the broomy knowe and cracking about Black Dwarfs, and siccan clavers, as was the gate lang syne, when the short sheep were in the fashion."

"Aweel, aweel, maister," said the attendant, "short sheep had short rents, I am thinking."

Here my worthy and learned patron again interposed, and observed, "that he could never perceive any material difference, in point of longitude, between one sheep and another." This occasioned a loud hoarse laugh on the part of the farmer, and an astonished stare on the part of the shepherd. "It's the woo', man,—it's the woo', and no the beasts themsels, that makes them be ca'd lang or short. I believe, if ye were to