Deil be in him! He has got to the lee-side of some smuggler's punch-bowl, and he wunna budge the night, I doubt.' 'That is your consort's instrument,' said I--' Will you give me leave to try my skill ?' I slipped at the same time a shilling into the woman's hand.
'I dinna ken whether I dare trust Robin's fiddle to ye,' said Willie, bluntly.

His wife gave him a twitch.

'Hout awa, Maggie,' he said in contempt of the hint; 'though the gentleman may hae gien ye siller, he may have nae bowhand for a' that, and I'll no trust Robin's fiddle wi' an ignoramus.

But that's no sae muckle amiss,' he added, as I began to touch the instrument; 'I am thinking ye have some skill o' the craft.' To confirm him in this favourable opinion, I began to execute such a complicated flourish as I thought must have turned Crowdero into a pillar of stone with envy and wonder.

I scaled the top of the finger-board, to dive at once to the bottom--skipped with flying fingers, like Timotheus, from shift to shift--struck arpeggios and harmonic tones, but without exciting any of the astonishment which I had expected.
Willie indeed listened to me with considerable attention; but I was no sooner finished, than he immediately mimicked on his own instrument the fantastic complication of tones which I had produced, and made so whimsical a parody of my performance, that, although somewhat angry, I could not help laughing heartily, in which I was joined by Benjie, whose reverence for me held him under no restraint; while the poor dame, fearful, doubtless, of my taking offence at this familiarity, seemed divided betwixt her conjugal reverence for her Willie, and her desire to give him a hint for his guidance.
At length the old man stopped of his own accord, and, as if he had sufficiently rebuked me by his mimicry, he said, 'But for a' that, ye will play very weel wi' a little practice and some gude teaching.