After a' that's come and gone, ye would be swier* to believe me upon my naked word; but ye'll believe Rankeillor.

He's factor to half the gentry in these parts; an auld man, forby: highly respeckit, and he kenned your father." * Unwilling.
I stood awhile and thought.

I was going to some place of shipping, which was doubtless populous, and where my uncle durst attempt no violence, and, indeed, even the society of the cabin-boy so far protected me.

Once there, I believed I could force on the visit to the lawyer, even if my uncle were now insincere in proposing it; and, perhaps, in the bottom of my heart, I wished a nearer view of the sea and ships.

You are to remember I had lived all my life in the inland hills, and just two days before had my first sight of the firth lying like a blue floor, and the sailed ships moving on the face of it, no bigger than toys.