`` Doubtless , '' says he . `` The house is a big , muckle house . '' `` Ay , '' said I , `` but the folk that are in it ? '' `` Folk ? '' cried he . `` Are ye daft ? There 's nae folk there -- to call folk . '' `` What ? '' say I ; `` not Mr. Ebenezer ? '' `` Ou , ay '' says the man ; `` there 's the laird , to be sure , if it 's him you 're wanting . What 'll like be your business , mannie ? '' `` I was led to think that I would get a situation , '' I said , looking as modest as I could . `` What ? '' cries the carter , in so sharp a note that his very horse started ; and then , `` Well , mannie , '' he added , `` it 's nane of my affairs ; but ye seem a decent-spoken lad ; and if ye 'll take a word from me , ye 'll keep clear of the Shaws . '' The next person I came across was a dapper little man in a beautiful white wig , whom I saw to be a barber on his rounds ; and knowing well that barbers were great gossips , I asked him plainly what sort of a man was Mr. Balfour of the Shaws . `` Hoot , hoot , hoot , '' said the barber , `` nae kind of a man , nae kind of a man at all ; '' and began to ask me very shrewdly what my business was ; but I was more than a match for him at that , and he went on to his next customer no wiser than he came . I can not well describe the blow this dealt to my illusions . The more indistinct the accusations were , the less I liked them , for they left the wider field to fancy . What kind of a great house was this , that all the parish should start and stare to be asked the way to it ? or what sort of a gentleman , that his ill-fame should be thus current on the wayside ?
If an hour 's walking would have brought me back to Essendean , I had XXXXX my adventure then and there , and returned to Mr. Campbell 's .
Ay Balfour Ebenezer Ou barbers gossips laird left mannie nane