"
"You mean that you would go away, laugh, and forget right off. No,
that won't do, but if you must have a token I will look up some little
keepsake to exchange for it. Oh, dear, what a horrid idea," she said,
quite scorney like, "to trade for a kiss; it's the way father buys his
fish, he gives salt for them, or flour, or some such barter, oh, Mr
Slick, I don't think much of you. But for goodness gracious sake how
did you learn Gaelic?"
"From lips, dear," said I, "and that's the reason I shall never forget
it."
"No, no," said she, "but how on earth did you ever pick it up."
"I didn't pick it up, Miss," said I, "I kissed it up, and as you want
a story I might as well tell you that as any other."
"It depends upon what sort of a story it is," said she, colouring.
"Oh, yes," said the Campbell girls, who didn't appear quite so
skittish as she was, "do tell us, no doubt you will make a funny one
out of it. Come, begin."
Squire, you are older than I be, and I suppose you will think all this
sort of thing is clear sheer nonsense, but depend upon it a kiss is a
great mystery. There is many a thing we know that we can't explain,
still we are sure it is a fact for all that. Why should there be a
sort of magic in shaking hands, which seems only a mere form, and
sometimes a painful one too, for some folks wring your fingers off
amost, and make you fairly dance with pain, they hurt you so.
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