Setting that upon the table, he was not long in drawing from it in a
"rummer" a quantity of spirit that four fingers would never half
conceal. "Now, drink that," he said, handing the raw spirit to his
involuntary guest. Then when the liquor had all disappeared, said he:
"You are the first that has ever searched my house. See you be the last!
Ye're a stranger i' thae parts, so we'll say nae mair aboot it this
nicht. But mind you this--if ever ye come again, see that ye be measured
for your coffin before ye start."
Tradition has no record of Jack Stokoe having ever again been
disturbed.
SALMON AND SALMON-POACHERS IN THE BORDER
What is it that causes a salmon to be so irresistible a temptation to
the average Borderer? He knows that it is illegal to take "a fish" from
the water at certain seasons, and at other times except under certain
circumstances. Yet at any season and under any circumstances the sight
of a fish in river or burn draws him like a magnet, and take it he must,
if by any means it may be done outside the ken of the Tweed
Commissioners and their minions. Even if he be a rigid observer of the
law, a disciplinarian of Puritan fervour, in his heart he takes that
salmon, and his pulse goes many beats faster as, standing on the bank,
he watches the "bow wave" made by a moving fish in thin water, or sees
it struggle up a cauld.
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