My Man Sandy

My Man Sandy, by J. B. Salmond

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Title: My Man Sandy
Author: J. B. Salmond
Release Date: February 7, 2007 [EBook #20540]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY MAN
SANDY ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Cover Art--Sandy]

MY MAN SANDY
BY

J. B. SALMOND

SIXTH EDITION

SANDS & CO.
EDINBURGH: 37 GEORGE STREET
LONDON: 15 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1919

PREFACE.
These sketches are taken from a series written originally for newspaper
purposes. Revision of them has made their author keenly conscious of
their defects; but Bawbie and Sandy are characters who might be
completely spoiled by improvement. The sketches are therefore
presented as they were hastily "rubbed-in" for serial publication.
The "foo," "far," "fat," and "fan" of the Angus dialect have been
changed into the more classic "hoo," "whaur," &c.; otherwise the
sketches remain in the form in which they have gained quite an
unexpected popularity amongst Scottish readers both at home and
abroad.
ARBROATH, N.B., April, 1889.

CONTENTS.
I. SANDY SWAPS HIS POWNEY II. SANDY STARTS TO STUDY
GEOMETRY III. SANDY AND THE DINNER BELL IV. A TALK
ABOUT HEAVEN V. MISTRESS MIKAVER'S TEA PARTY VI.

SANDY'S SECOND LESSON IN GEOMETRY VII. SANDY'S
MAGIC LANTERN EXHIBITION VIII. SANDY AND THE
RHUBARB TART IX. THE GREAT STORM OF NOVEMBER, 1893
X. SANDY AND HIS FAIRNTICKLES XI. SANDY STANDS
"EMPIRE" AT A CRICKET MATCH XII. A DREADFUL
DISASTER IN THE GARRET XIII. SANDY AND BAWBIE'S
SPRING HOLIDAY XIV. LOVE AND WAR XV. SANDY MAKES
A SPEECH XVI. SANDY'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT XVII. AT THE
SELECT CHOIR'S CONCERT XVIII. SANDY RUNS A RACE XIX.
SANDY REVENGED XX. SANDY'S APOLOGIA

MY MAN SANDY.
I
SANDY SWAPS HIS POWNEY.
He's a queer cratur, my man Sandy! He's made, mind an' body o' him,
on an original plan a'thegither. He says an' does a' mortal thing on a
system o' his ain; Gairner Winton often says that if Sandy had been in
the market-gardenin' line, he wudda grown his cabbage wi' the stocks
aneth the ground, juist to lat them get the fresh air aboot their ruits. It's
juist his wey, you see. I wudna winder to see him some day wi' Donal'
yokit i' the tattie-cairt wi' his heid ower the fore-end o't, an' the hurdles
o' him whaur his heid shud be. I've heard Sandy say that he had an idea
that a horse cud shuve far better than poo; an' when Sandy ance gets an
idea intil his heid, there's some beast or body has to suffer for't afore he
gets redd o't. If there's a crank wey o' doin' onything Sandy will find it
oot. For years he reg'larly flang the stable key ower the gate efter he'd
brocht oot Donal' an' the cairt. When he landit hame again, he climbed
the gate for the key, an' syne climbed ower again an' opened it frae the
ootside. He michta carried the key in his pooch; but onybody cudda
dune that! But, as I was sayin', it's juist his wey.
"It's juist the shape original sin's ta'en in Sandy's case," the Gairner said
when the Smith an' him were discussin' the subject.

"I dinna ken aboot the sin; but it's original eneuch, there's nae doot
aboot that," said the Smith.
There's naebody kens that better than me, for I've haen the teuch end o'
forty year o't. But, still an' on, he's my ain man, the only ane ever I had,
an' I'll stick up for him, an' till him, while the lamp holds on to burn, as
the Psalmist says.
* * * * * *
"See if I can say my geog, Bawbie," said Nathan to me the ither
forenicht, as I was stanin' in the shop. He'd been sittin' ben the hoose
wi' his book croonin' awa' till himsel' aboot Rooshya bein' boundit on
the north by the White Sea, an' on the sooth by the Black Sea, an' some
ither wey by the Tooral-ooral mountains or something, an' he cam' ben
an' handed me his geog, as he ca'd it, to see if he had a' this palaver on
his tongue.
I've often windered what was the use o' Nathan wirryin' ower thae
oot-o'-the-wey places that he wud never be within a thoosand mile o'.
He kens a' the oots an' ins o' Valiparaiso, but michty little aboot
Bowriefauld. Hooever, I suppose the dominie kens best.
Nathan