"Ay," said the other, sighing over the reflection, "when ye get cheenge for a saxpence here, it's soon slippit awa'." I recollect a story of my father's which illustrates the force of dialect, although confined to the inflections of a single monosyllable.

On riding home one evening, he passed a cottage or small farm-house, where there was a considerable assemblage of people, and an evident incipient merry-making for some festive occasion.

On asking one of the lasses standing about, what it was, she answered, "Ou, it's just a wedding o' Jock Thamson and Janet Frazer." To the question, "Is the bride rich ?" there was a plain quiet "Na." "Is she young ?" a more emphatic and decided "Naa!" but to the query, "Is she bonny ?" a most elaborate and prolonged shout of "Naaa!" It has been said that the Scottish dialect is peculiarly powerful in its use of _vowels_, and the following dialogue between a shopman and a customer has been given as a specimen.

The conversation relates to a plaid hanging at the shop door-- _Cus_.

(inquiring the material), Oo?
(wool ?) _Shop_.