His friends consoled him for the loss of the wife; and being highly respectable, several hints and offers were made towards getting another for him.

"Ou ay," he at length replied; "you're a' keen aneuch to get me anither wife, but no yin o' ye offers to gie me anither coo." The following anecdotes, collected from different contributors, are fair samples of the quaint and original character of Scottish ways and expressions, now becoming more and more matters of reminiscence:--A poor man came to his minister for the purpose of intimating his intention of being married.

As he expressed, however, some doubts on the subject, and seemed to hesitate, the minister asked him if there were any doubts about his being accepted.

No, that was not the difficulty; but he expressed a fear that it might not be altogether suitable, and he asked whether, if he were once married, he could not (in case of unsuitability and unhappiness) get _un_married.

The clergyman assured him that it was impossible; if he married, it must be for better and worse; that he could not go back upon the step.