ERCHIE

My Droll Friend

By Hugh Foulis

(Neil Munro)

(The Looker-On)

William Blackwood and Sons Edinburgh and London

MCMIV

Original

Original

CONTENTS

PREFACE.

ERCHIE

I INTRODUCTORY TO AN ODD CHARACTER

II ERCHIE'S FLITTING

III DEGENERATE DAYS

IV THE BURIAL OF BIG MACPHEE

V THE PRODIGAL SON

VI MRS DUFFY DESERTS HER MAN

VII CARNEGIE'S WEE LASSIE

VIII A SON OF THE CITY

IX ERCHIE ON THE KING'S CRUISE

X HOW JINNET SAW THE KING

XI ERCHIE RETURNS

XII DUFFY'S FIRST FAMILY

XIII ERCHIE GOES TO A BAZAAR

XIV HOLIDAYS

XV THE STUDENT LODGER

XVI JINNET'S TEA-PARTY

XVII THE NATIVES OF CLACHNACUDDEN

XVIII MARY ANN

XIX DUFFY'S, WEDDING

XX ON CORPORAL PUNISHMENT

XXI THE FOLLIES OF FASHION

XXII ERCHIE IN AN ART TEA-ROOM

XXIII THE HIDDEN TREASURE

XXIV THE VALENTEEN

XXV AMONG THE PICTURES

XXVI THE PROBATIONARY GHOST

XXVII JINNET'S CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

XXVIII A BET ON BURNS

XXIX THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN

PREFACE.

The majority of the following chapters are selections from "Erchie" articles contributed to the pages of the 'Glasgow Evening News' during the past three years. A number of the sketches are now published for the first time.

ERCHIE

I INTRODUCTORY TO AN ODD CHARACTER

On Sundays he is the beadle of our church; at other times he Waits. In his ecclesiastical character there is a solemn dignity about his deportment that compels most of us to call him Mr MacPherson; in his secular hours, when passing the fruit at a city banquet, or when at the close of the repast he sweeps away the fragments of the dinner-rolls, and whisperingly