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“WATER BEWITCHED.”

A widow of the name of Betty Falla kept an alehouse in one of the market-towns frequented by the Lammermuir ladies, (Dunse, we believe,) and a number of them used to lodge at her house during the fair.  One year Betty’s ale turned sour soon after the fair; there had been a thunder-storm in the interim, and Betty’s ale was, as they say in that country, “strongest in the water.”  Betty did not understand the first of these causes, and she did not wish to understand the latter.  The ale was not palatable; and Betty brewed again to the same strength of water.  Again it thundered, and again the swipes became vinegar.  Betty was at her wit’s end,—­no long journey; but she was breathless.

Having got to her own wit’s end, Betty naturally wished to draw upon the stock of another; and where should she find it in such abundance as with the minister of the parish.  Accordingly, Betty put on her best, got her nicest basket, laid a couple of bottles of her choicest brandy in the bottom, and over them a dozen or two of her freshest eggs; and thus freighted, she fidgetted off to the manse, offered her peace-offering, and hinted that she wished to speak with his reverence in “preevat.”

“What is your will, Betty?” said the minister of Dunse.  “An unco uncanny mishap,” replied the tapster’s wife.

“Has Mattie not been behaving?” said the minister.  “Like an innocent lamb,” quoth Betty Falla.

“Then—?” said the minister, lacking the rest of the query.  “Anent the yill,” said Betty.

“The ale!” said the minister; “has any body been drinking and refused to pay?”

“Na,” said Betty, “they winna drink a drap.”

“And would you have me to encourage the sin of drunkenness?” asked the minister.

“Na, na,” said Betty, “far frae that; I only want your kin’ han’ to get in yill again as they can drink.”

“I am no brewer, Betty,” said the minister gravely.

“Gude forfend, Sir,” said Betty, “that the like o’ you should be evened to the gyle tub.  I dinna wish for ony thing o’ the kind.”—­“Then what is the matter?” asked the minister.

“It’s witched, clean witched; as sure as I’m a born woman,” said Betty.

“Naebody else will drink it, an’ I canna drink it mysel’.”

“You must not be superstitious, Betty,” said the minister.  “I’m no ony thing o’ the kin’,” said Betty, colouring, “an’ ye ken it yoursel’; but twa brousts wadna be vinegar for naething.” (She lowered her voice.) “Ye mun ken, Sir, that o’ a’ the leddies frae the Lammermuir, that hae been comin’ and gaen, there was an auld rudas wife this fair, an’ I’m certie she’s witched the yill; and ye mun just look into ye’r buiks, an’ tak off the withchin!”

“When do you brew, Betty?”—­“This blessed day, gin it like you, Sir.”

“Then, Betty, here is the thing you want, the same malt and water as usual?”