J. J. Bell

“ What that man didna ken aboot wilks wasna worth the kennin', and the way he explained it a' was a fair treat. Ye would ha'e said he had been brought up wi' wilks; he couldna ha'e been mair familiar wi' his own brithers and sisters. He kent every bane in the wilk's body, every tooth in its head, what it liked to eat, hoo it stuck to the rock, and so forth. And noo and then he cracked a joke aboot its little ways. Oh, he was great I I canna say that Miss Tinto was as interested as masel'—she's no' very quick at the uptak'; but she done her best to look happy. ”

“ Parkins would be pleased to gi'e ye a wilk course to your dinner. It'll no' be a great spread this evenin', I may tell you."
"A winkle course—what do you say to that, Miss Tinto?" he cries, in fits.
"Oh, horrors!" says she. "I'm sure we should all be poisoned."
"Nae fear o' that, mem," I tells her. "I grant ye, in Glasgow, ye might chance on a wilk that wasna jist the thing, but here they're bound to be the purest o' the pure." ”

“ Ma brain was fu' o' wilks—or, at least, thoughts aboot them. I wondered if Mr. Shark kent likewise aboot cockles and mussels and limpets and other dwellers in the deep, and if he would ever be likely to tell me aboot them. "Hoo marvellous is the works o' Nature!" I says to masel', as I put five Pontefrats in ma mooth, "and what intellects that man has congealed by his whiskers!"
Next mornin', whilst Mrs. Parkins was assistin' me to mak' the beds, I says to her:—
"Would ye say there was ony chance, mem, o' Mr. Shard and Miss Tinto makin' a match o' it?" ”