The beggar's professional discrimination between the merits of the bones of the two mansions, and his pertinacious defence of his own property, would have been most amusing to a bystander.
I have, however, a reverse story, in which the beggar is quietly silenced by the proprietor.

A noble lord, some generations back, well known for his frugal habits, had just picked up a small copper coin in his own avenue, and had been observed by one of the itinerating mendicant race, who, grudging the transfer of the piece into the peer's pocket, exclaimed, "O, gie't to me, my lord;" to which the quiet answer was, "Na, na; fin' a fardin' for yersell, puir body." There are always pointed anecdotes against houses wanting in a liberal and hospitable expenditure in Scotland.

Thus, we have heard of a master leaving such a mansion, and taxing his servant with being drunk, which he had too often been after other country visits.

On this occasion, however, he was innocent of the charge, for he had not the _opportunity_ to transgress.

So, when his master asserted, "Jemmy, you are drunk!" Jemmy very quietly answered, "Indeed, sir, I wish I wur." At another mansion, notorious for scanty fare, a gentleman was inquiring of the gardener about a dog which some time ago he had given to the laird.