And in the
meanwhile ye'll no hinder Gilliewhackit to take the small-pox. There was
not the doctor in Perth or Stirling would look near the poor lad; and I
cannot blame them, for Donald had been misguggled by ane of these doctors
about Paris, and he swore he would fling the first into the loch that he
catched beyond the pass. However some cailliachs (that is, old women)
that were about Donald's hand nursed Gilliewhackit sae weel that, between
the free open air in the cove and the fresh whey, deil an he did not
recover maybe as weel as if he had been closed in a glazed chamber and a
bed with curtains, and fed with red wine and white meat. And Donald was
sae vexed about it that, when he was stout and weel, he even sent him
free home, and said he would be pleased with onything they would like to
gie him for the plague and trouble which he had about Gilliewhackit to an
unkenn'd degree. And I cannot tell you precisely how they sorted; but
they agreed sae right that Donald was invited to dance at the wedding in
his Highland trews, and they said that there was never sae meikle siller
clinked in his purse either before or since. And to the boot of all that,
Gilliewhackit said that, be the evidence what it liked, if he had the
luck to be on Donald's inquest, he would bring him in guilty of nothing
whatever, unless it were wilful arson or murder under trust.
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