THE COLOUR OF SCARLET.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3159, 13 August 1881, Page 3

THE COLOUR OF SCARLET.

A Highlander entered a haberdasher's shop in Dundee some time ago and asked for a piece of scarlet cloth to make him a waistcoat. The rustic manners of the Gael set some young women who were at the counter a-giggling ; and the shopman, willing to afford them sport, began to play off his small wit upon the stranger. ' So, good man, ye want a piece of scarlet ? Would you know a piece of scarlet if ye saw it?' ' I think I would' replied the mountaineer. The shopman threw down a piece of blue cloth : ' Is that scarlet P' ' Hoot, no, no ; that no be it.' A. piece of green cloth was produced ; the same question was repeated and received a similar answei , , to the great amusement of the querist and his female friends, who were at no pains to conceal their mirth. The Highlander took revenge in his own way. He put his nose to the cloth, and affected to ■judge of the color by the smell. The shopman, at his request, did the same ; but the instant he bent his nose towai'ds the counter the Highlandman seized him by the ears and made his nasal protuberance come in such violent contact with the boards that the blood sprung from it. ' Tat,' said the Highlander, 'is the color o' scarlet tae ye noo, lad, 'and coolly walked away.