Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 4).djvu/267

guest not provided with better company, yet received it from many, and was no whit abashed or surprised at the summons. He sat down, along with his guest, in a secluded nook near the chimney; and, while he received encouragement to drink by far the greater share of the liquor before them, as a part of his expected function, he entered at length upon the news of the country—the births, deaths, and marriages—the change of property—the downfall of old families, and the rise of new. But politics, now the fertile source of eloquence, mine host did not care to mingle in his theme, and it was only in answer to a question of Morton, that he replied, with an air of indifference, "Um! ay! we aye hae sodgers amang us, mair or less. There's a wheen German horse doun at Glasgow yonder; they ca' their commander Wittybody, or some sic name, though he's as grave and grewsome an auld Dutchman as e'er I saw."