The Ettrick Shepherd.—

He said one day, coming in from the field, ‘I have received ill news.’ As the Ettrick Shepherd was no bearer of evil tidings, some anxiety was manifested by his partner in life and others present. ‘It is not much after all,’ he continued, ‘but only that stupid bank is broken, and I have a good many of the notes; but neither would I regret this, were it not that I the other day paid these poor fellows, who have been labour-page 311ing hard, late and soon all the summer to me, with the notes, and they are not worth a farthing to them. There is nought for it but just to send for them and pay them with other money.’ One said he thought the law would not oblige him to do so. ‘I never heed the law of the land,’ said the shepherd, ‘in such cases. We have two laws for-bye this, and that a good deal nearer hand home, as well as that they are a very great deal cheaper—we have the law of God and the law of humanity, and I cannot rest satisfied till this matter be righted.’ The matter was righted accordingly, the Shepherd saying, that it was better for him than for them to take chance of the unsubstantial money, for he got his far more easily than they got theirs.

—Hogg's Weekly Instructor.