I didn't know anything about the subject, but I took a hand just to have something to do.

At that moment the word in dispute was the word three.

One Scotchman was claiming that the peasantry of Scotland pronounced it three, his adversaries claimed that they didn't--that they pronounced it 'thraw'.
The solitary Scot was having a sultry time of it, so I thought I would enrich him with my help.

In my position I was necessarily quite impartial, and was equally as well and as ill equipped to fight on the one side as on the other.

So I spoke up and said the peasantry pronounced the word three, not thraw.