Here was a pretty business, for though gentleman born I was as loutish with a gentleman's weapon as any country hind.
This discovery gave me some melancholy weeks, but I plucked up heart and set to reasoning.

If my hand were to guard my head it must find some other way of it.

My thoughts turned to powder and shot, to the musket and the pistol.

Here was a weapon which needed only a stout nerve, a good eye, and a steady hand; one of these I possessed to the full, and the others were not beyond my attainment.

There lived an armourer in the Gallowgate, one Weir, with whom I began to spend my leisure.