He is rarely at fault in his reckoning; but if, by chance, an error escapes him, it is not he who suffers by it.
I must hasten, however, to say that the honesty of the Scotch in England is proverbial. I have always heard the English say they liked doing business with Scotch firms, because they had the very qualities desirable in a customer: straight-forwardness and solvency.
Donald's honesty is all the more admirable, because he is firmly convinced in his heart, that he will go straight to Paradise whatever he may do. You will confess that there is danger about a Christian who feels sure that many things shall be forgiven him.
Perhaps his honesty may be the result of reflection, if the following little anecdote that was told me in Scotland is any criterion:
A worthy father, feeling death at hand, sends for his son to hear his last counsels.
"Donald," he says to him, "listen to the last words of your old father. If you want to get on in the world, be honest. Never forget that, in all business, honesty is the best policy. You may take my word for it, my son,--_I hae tried baith_."
This worthy Scot deserved an epitaph in the style of that one which the late Count Beust speaks of having seen on a tombstone at Highclere:
"Here lies Donald, who was as honest a man as it is possible to be in this world."
The Jews never got a footing in Scotland: they would have starved there.
They came; but they saw ... and gave it up.
You may find one or two in Glasgow, but they are in partnership with Scotchmen, and do not form a band apart. They do not do much local business: they are exporters and importers.
The Aberdonians tell of a Jew who once came to their city and set up in business; but it was not long before he packed up his traps and decamped from that centre of Scotch 'cuteness.
"Why are you going?" they asked him. "Is it because there are no Jews in Aberdeen?"
"Oh, no," he replied; "I am going because you are all Jews here."
An American was so ill-inspired as to try his hand there where even a Jew had been beaten.
The good folk of Aberdeen are very proud of telling the following anecdote, which dates from only a few months back, and was in everyone's mouth at the time of my visit to the city of granite: