"Roy ne puis, prince ne daigne"; he was the laird of Cauldstaneslap--say fifty acres--_ipsissimus_.

Clement was Mr.Elliott, as upon his door-plate, the earlier Dafty having been discarded as no longer applicable, and indeed only a reminder of misjudgment and the imbecility of the public; and the youngest, in honour of his perpetual wanderings, was known by the sobriquet of Randy Dand.
It will be understood that not all this information was communicated by the aunt, who had too much of the family failing herself to appreciate it thoroughly in others.

But as time went on, Archie began to observe an omission in the family chronicle.
"Is there not a girl too ?" he asked.
"Ay: Kirstie.

She was named for me, or my grandmother at least--it's the same thing," returned the aunt, and went on again about Dand, whom she secretly preferred by reason of his gallantries.
"But what is your niece like ?" said Archie at the next opportunity.
"Her?
As black's your hat! But I dinna suppose she would maybe be what you would ca' _ill-looked_ a'thegither.

Na, she's a kind of a handsome jaud--a kind o' gipsy," said the aunt, who had two sets of scales for men and women--or perhaps it would be more fair to say that she had three, and the third and the most loaded was for girls.
"How comes it that I never see her in church ?" said Archie.
"'Deed, and I believe she's in Glesgie with Clem and his wife.