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or to the disadvantage of any of his countrymen, and he was pitched on as the transgressor, the town would say, "It could not be, for Mr. Cunningham was too much reclaimed from his former courses ever to give into them again." We shall insert a very notable adventure Sawney had with a fortune-teller; to which end we shall trace it up from the fountain-head, and give our readers the first cause that induced him to it. When Sawney was an infant, he was put out to nurse to a poor countrywoman, in a little village, a mile or two out of Glasgow; the woman, as the boy grew up, could not help increasing in her love for him, and would often say to her neighbours, "Oh! I shall see this lad a rich man one day." This saying coming to the ears of his parents, they would frequently make themselves merry with it, and thought no more of it, than as the pure result of the nurse's fondness. Sawney having enriched himself with the spoils about Edinburgh, actually thought his old nurse's words were verified, and sent for her to give her a gratification for her prediction. She came, but Sawney had so disguised himself that the poor woman did not know him. He told her that he was an acquaintance of Mr. Cunningham's, who, on her coming, had ordered him to carry her to Mr. Peterson, the astrologer's, where she would be sure to see and speak to him; for he was gone there to get some information about an affair that nearly concerned him. The nurse and her pretended conductor went to the fortune-teller's, where desiring admittance, Peterson thought they were persons that wanted his assistance, and bade them sit down, when Sawney began to harangue upon astrology, and the laudable practice of it.

"I and this old woman," said he, "are two of the most accomplished astrologers, or fortune-tellers, in Scotland; but I would not, Reverend Sir, by so saying, seem to depreciate from your knowledge and understanding in so venerable a science. I came to communicate a small affair to you, to the end that, not relying on my judgment and this woman's, I might partake of yours. You are to know, Sir, that, from six years of age, I have led a very untoward life, and been guilty of many egregious sins, too numerous to tell you at present, and what your ears would not care to hear; for my employment has been to make myself a sharer of other people's money, bilk my lodging, and ruin the