The Ayrshire Legatees; Or, The Pringle Family

foregoing chapter, the following was received from Mrs. Pringle, and the intelligence it

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ds, one of the nails gaed in ajee, and broke the pot of marmlet, which, by the jolting of the ship, ruined the muslin, rottened the peper round the goun, which the shivers cut into more than twenty great holes. Over and above all, the crock with the butter was, no one can tell how, crackit, and the pickle lecking out, and mixing with the seerip of the marmlet, spoilt the cheese. In short, at the object I beheld, when the bocks was opened, I could have ta'en to the greeting; but I behaved with more composity on the occasion, than the Doctor thought it was in the power of nature to do. Howsomever, till I get a new goun and other things, I am obliged to be a prisoner; and as the Doctor does not like to go to the counting-house of the agents without me, I know not what is yet to be the consequence of our journey. But it would need to be something; for we pay four guineas and a half a week for our dr

sold by the licht weight, only the fish are awful; half a guinea for a cod's head, and no

icular account how the leddies are dressed; but everybody is in deep mourning. Howsomever I have seen but little, and that only in a manner from the wind

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London were but the phantasms of our own inexperience. I use the plural, for I really share in the shame of having called in question the high character of the agents: it ought to have been warrantry en

he Doctor, my mother, and your humble servant, in a hackney coach, to Broad Street, where the agents have their counting-house,

hem in those whom we love and esteem; but I own to you, that there was a something in the demeanour of the old folks o

Mr. Argent received us standing, and in an easy gentlemanly manner said to my father, "You are the residuary legatee of the late Colonel Armour. I am sorry that you did not apprise me of this visit, that I might have been prepared to give the information you naturally desire; but if you will call here to-morrow at 12 o'clock, I shall then be able to satisfy you on the subject. Your lady, I presume?" he added, turning to my mother; "Mrs. Argent will have the honour of waiting on you; may I therefore beg the favour of your address?" Fortunately I was provided

ly shared in their fears. This, however, was not the gravest part of the business; for, instead of going to St. Paul's and the Tower, as we had intended, my mother declared, that not one farthing would they spe

tle of wine, saved from the preceding day, hardly afforded a glas

n indifferent matters. I could see that a question, big with law and fortune, was gathering in the breasts both of the Doctor and my mother, and that they were in a state far from that of the blessed. But one of the clerks, before they had time to express their indignant suspicions, entered with a paper, and Mr. Argent, having glanced it over, said to the Doctor-"I congratulate you, sir, on

quisite expenses." This was a thunderclap. "Where can I get such a sum?" exclaimed my father, in a tone of pathetic simplicity. Mr. Argent smiled and said, "We shall manage that for you"; and having in the same momen

on of all the information we required, and found those whom we feared migh

octor and my mother, and waggishly drolled, as if he did not understand them, in order, I could perceive, to draw out the simplicity of their apprehensions. He quite won the old lady's economical heart, by offering to frank her letters, for he is in Parliament. "You have prob

as put it in my power to attain. The incidents, indeed, of this day, have been all highly gratifying, and the new and brighter phase in which I have seen the mercantile character, as it is connected with the greatness and glory of my country-is in itself equivalent to an accession of useful knowledge. I can no longer wonder at the vast power which the British Government wielded during the late war, whe

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