Take all that we have--horse and cart and all if ye like; only spare our lives, and let us away home!" "De'il's in the man," quo' Tammie, "horse and cart! that's a gude one! Na, na, lads; fire away gin ye like; for as lang as I hae a drap o' bluid in me, ye'll get neither.

Better be killed than starve.

Do your best, ye thieves that ye are; and I'll hae baith of ye hanged neist week before the Fifteen!" Every moment I expected my head to be shot off, till I got my hand clapped on Tammie's mouth, and could get cried to them--"Shoot him then, lads; shoot him then, lads, if he wants it; but take my siller like Christians, and let me away with my poor deeing bairn!" The two men seemed a something dumfoundered with what they heard; and I began to think them, if they were highway robbers, a wee slow at their trade; when, what think ye did they turn out to be--only guess?
Nothing more nor less than two excise officers, that had got information of some smuggled gin, coming up in a cart from Fisherrow Harbour, and were lurking on the road-side, looking out for spuilzie!! When they quitted us giggling, I could not keep from laughing too; though the sights I had seen, and the fright I had got, made me nervish and eerie; so blithe was I when the cart rattled on our own street, and I began to waken Benjie, as we were not above a hundred yards from our own door.
In this day's adventures, I saw the sin and folly of my conduct visibly, as I jumped out of the cart at our close mouth.

So I determined within myself, with a strong determination, to behave more sensibly for the future, and think no more about limekilns and coal-pits; but to trust, for Benjie's recovery from the chincough, to a kind Providence, together with Daffy's elixir, and warm blankets..