and therefore, if Mr Plan and Mr Hickery would shake hands, and

agree never to notice what had passed to each other, and the other
members and magistrates would consent likewise to bury the business

in oblivion, I would agree to the balsamic advice of Mr Peevie, and
even waive my obligation to bind over the hostile parties to keep

the king's peace, so that the whole affair might neither be known
nor placed upon record.

Mr Hickery, I could discern, was rather surprised; but I found that
I had thus got the thief in the wuddy, and he had no choice; so both

he and Mr Plan rose from their seats in a very sheepish manner, and
looking at us as if they had unpleasant ideas in their minds, they

departed forth the council-chamber; and a minute was made by the
town-clerk that they, having resigned their trust as councillors,

two other gentlemen at the next meeting should be chosen into their
stead.

Thus did I, in a manner most unexpected, get myself rid and clear of
the two most obdurate oppositionists, and by taking care to choose

discreet persons for their successors, I was enabled to wind the
council round my finger, which was a far more expedient method of

governing the community than what I had at one time meditated, even
if I could have brought it to a bearing. But, in order to

understand the full weight and importance of this, I must describe
how the choice and election was made, because, in order to make my

own power and influence the more sicker, it was necessary that I
should not be seen in the business.

CHAPTER XLVI --THE NEW COUNCILLORS
Mr Peevie was not a little proud of the part he had played in the

storm of the council, and his words grew, if possible, longer-nebbit
and more kittle than before, in so much that the same evening, when

I called on him after dusk, by way of a device to get him to help
the implementing of my intents with regard to the choice of two

gentlemen to succeed those whom he called "the expurgated
dislocators," it was with a great difficulty that I could expiscate

his meaning. "Mr Peevie," said I, when we were cozily seated by
ourselves in his little back parlour--the mistress having set out

the gardevin and tumblers, and the lass brought in the hot water--"I
do not think, Mr Peevie, that in all my experience, and I am now

both an old man and an old magistrate, that I ever saw any thing
better managed than the manner in which ye quelled the hobleshow

this morning, and therefore we maun hae a little more of your
balsamic advice, to make a' heal among us again; and now that I

think o't, how has it happent that ye hae never been a bailie? I'm
sure it's due both to your character and circumstance that ye should

take upon you a portion of the burden of the town honours.
Therefore, Mr Peevie, would it no be a very proper thing, in the

choice of the new councillors, to take men of a friendly mind
towards you, and of an easy and manageable habit of will."

The old man was mightily taken with this insinuation, and
acknowledged that it would give him pleasure to be a bailie next

year. We then cannily proceeded, just as if one thing begat
another, to discourse anent the different men that were likely to do

as councillors, and fixed at last on Alexander Hodden the blanket
merchant, and Patrick Fegs the grocer, both excellent characters of

their kind. There was not, indeed, in the whole burgh at the time,
a person of such a flexible easy nature as Mr Hodden; and his

neighbour, Mr Fegs, was even better, for he was so good-tempered,
and kindly, and complying, that the very callants at the grammar

school had nicknamed him Barley-sugar Pate.
"No better than them can be," said I to Mr Peevie; "they are

likewise both well to do in the world, and should be brought into
consequence; and the way o't canna be in better hands than your own.

I would, therefore, recommend it to you to see them on the subject,
and, if ye find them willing, lay your hairs in the water to bring

the business to a bearing."
Accordingly, we settled to speak of it as a matter in part decided,

that Mr Hodden and Mr Fegs were to be the two new councillors; and
to make the thing sure, as soon as I went home I told it to Mrs

Pawkie as a state secret, and laid my injunctions on her not to say
a word about it, either to Mrs Hodden or to Mrs Fegs, the wives of

our two elect; for I knew her disposition, and that, although to a
certainty not a word of the fact would escape from her, yet she

would be utterly unable to rest until she had made the substance of
it known in some way or another; and, as I expected, so it came to

pass. She went that very night to Mrs Rickerton, the mother of Mr
Feg's wife, and, as I afterwards picked out of her, told the old

lady that may be, ere long, she would hear of some great honour that
would come to her family, with other mystical intimations that

pointed plainly to the dignities of the magistracy; the which, when
she had returned home, so worked upon the imagination of Mrs

Rickerton, that, before going to bed, she felt herself obliged to
send for her daughter, to the end that she might be delivered and

eased of what she had heard. In this way Mr Fegs got a foretaste of
what had been concerted for his advantage; and Mr Peevie, in the

mean time, through his helpmate, had, in like manner, not been idle;
the effect of all which was, that next day, every where in the town,

people spoke of Mr Hodden and Mr Fegs as being ordained to be the
new councillors, in the stead of the two who had, as it was said,

resigned in so unaccountable a manner, so that no candidates
offered, and the election was concluded in the most candid and

agreeable spirit possible; after which I had neither trouble nor
adversary, but went on, in my own prudent way, with the works in

hand--the completion of the new bridge, the reparation of the
tolbooth steeple, and the bigging of the new schools on the piece of

ground adjoining to my own at the Westergate; and in the doing of
the latter job I had an opportunity of manifesting my public spirit;

for when the scheme, as I have related" target="_blank" title="a.叙述的；有联系的">related, was some years before given
up, on account of Mr Plan's castles in the air for educating tawny

children from the East and West Indies, I inclosed my own ground,
and built the house thereon now occupied by Collector Gather's

widow, and the town, per consequence, was not called on for one
penny of the cost, but saved so much of a wall as the length of mine

extended--a part not less than a full third part of the whole. No
doubt, all these great and useful public works were not done without

money; but the town was then in great credit, and many persons were
willing and ready to lend; for every thing was in a prosperous

order, and we had a prospect of a vast increase of income, not only
from the toll on the new bridge, but likewise from three very

excellent shops which we repaired on the ground floor of the
tolbooth. We had likewise feued out to advantage a considerable

portion of the town moor; so that had things gone on in the way they
were in my time, there can be no doubt that the burgh would have

been in very flourishing circumstances, and instead of being
drowned, as it now is, in debt, it might have been in the most

topping way; and if the project that I had formed for bringing in a
supply of water by pipes, had been carried into effect, it would

have been a most advantageous undertaking for the community at
large.

But my task is now drawing to an end; and I have only to relate what
happened at the conclusion of the last act of my very serviceable

and eventful life, the which I will proceed to do with as much
brevity as is consistent with the nature of that free and faithful

spirit in which the whole of these notandums have been indited.
CHAPTER XLVII--THE RESIGNATION

Shortly after the Battle of Waterloo, I began to see that a change
was coming in among us. There was less work for the people to do,

no outgate in the army for roving and idle spirits, and those who
had tacks of the town lands complained of slack markets; indeed, in