Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush
at himself down one day in the study of a West-end minist
wnsman's heart, and the power of
heard of Drumtochty, of coorse. A've jined the polis; the pay i
ars had been digest
iravie (commotion), rinnin' here an' rinnin' there, an
u' tae see the helplessness o' the bodies in their ain toon. And they're
nin' that a man askit
ra
nna gang doon it, and when ye see anither pass it, but whup
bit cratur, and h
, officer?' in his cl
' we hev juist ae man as sm
o ane o' them asks me a question but he lauchs. They're a licht-headed fou
a brave effort t
o?" but the figure simply
but a' thocht ye wud b
nd
oond the kirks and hear what kin' o' ministers they hae up here. A've been in saxtee
tuff-plenty o' water and little meal-and some wesna sae bad for England. But ye 'ill be pleased to know," here the figure r
ye, her 'at prees (tastes) the sermons in oor Glen; a' believe she wud
e was a tradition that one of the Disruption fathers had preached in the Free Kirk for one hour and fifty minutes on the bulwarks of Zion, and had left the impression that he was only playing round the outskirts of his subject. No preacher with anything to say could complain of Drumtochty, for he got a patient, honest, critical hearing from beginning to end. If a preacher were slightly equipped, the audience may have been trying. Well
he day. There wes nae thocht worth mentionin', and onything he hed
de in his ain place. He hesna muckle in his head, a'll
said 'I'? a' got as far as saxty-three, and then a' lost
peth Macfadyen. A' kent
ruel, and eneuch tae scunne
It rested on a long series of unreversed judgments, with felicitous strokes of description that passed into the literary capital of the Glen. One felt it was genius, and could only note contributing circumstances-an eye that took in the preacher from the cro
in kirk or outside, was strictly forbidden in Drumtochty-or mark her Bible, or practise any other profane device of fee
nd gave, at full length, his famous discourse on the total depravity of the human race, from the text, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come,"
an seeventy heads, coontin' pints, of coorse, and a' can weel believe it. Na,
et his mind at rest, and El
for it canna be
inutes exactly, for Ja
that fourth pint under the sixth head. Whether it wes the 'beginnin' o' fait
xt Friday-Drumtochty was celebrating Elspeth-
tress Stirton, who was the stupidest woman in the Free Kirk, and had once stuck in the "chief end of man." They never suspected the sonsy motherly woman, two pews behind Donald
d to me one day, "hoo the pulpit fashi
udas Iscariot the first Residuary,' would stand twa meenu
eir face wi' ae hand sae solemn, that if ye didna catch them keekin' through
, and although the excellent woman was not acc
. Noo, there's the new minister o' Netheraird, he writes his sermon on ae side o' ten sheets o' paper, an' he's that carried awa' at the
less, and that set me thinkin'. Then a' noticed that he left the Bible open at the place till anither text was due, an' I wunnered a'd been sae slow. It wes this wy: he askit the beadle for a gless o' water in the
odigal quotations of Scriptures, and
fozzy wi' trokin' in his gairden an' feedin' pi
Paul? We shall see what the Apostle Paul says.' He puts on his glasses, and turns up the passage, and reads maybe ten verses, and then he's aff on t
er, at any rate,' say
n, he hes aye some g
e feed a calf wi' milk, and anither
lazy he preaches auld sermons, but a Free Kirk minister ta
y rate," and Elspeth tasted the sweets of memory
le prood o' his feenishes
tate, for there ye will no longer eat the flesh of bulls nor drink the blood o
owl, and a' aye haud that a man withoot
n humour at the college; it's an awfu' wa
hin' tae the goat, tha
t t
nna behave himsel' tae this day gin he hears 'i
r feenish, and
s and mind yir ain business. And as sune as ye get hame ilka man 'ill gae tae his closet and shut
masel', and a' hed tae d
t wes barmin' in him, and he gied oot sudden ai
the strae like a bairn, and every ither
ht, besides bein' a married man and a
since. But he hesna forgot, na, na; a've seen a look
obationers, Mrs. Macfadyen summed them up with such excell
windows that ye canna pass withoot lookin'; there's bits o
denty, an' no wunner the
peety me, there's next tae na
s neat an' fikey a little mannie
aboot a lord-twa burnies, ae floo'r gairden, and a snowstorm, wi' the text thirteen times and '
ws-they're that ill set out-and inside there's sic a wrale o' stuff tha
enty o' time and can turn ower the things by the
rial than he kens hoo tae handle, and naebody,
uthfu' o' justification the next. Yir nae suner wi'
e doot, but sair mixed
ng compromised, an
ot indiscreet. She could convey her mind delicately
as a stout young man with a volcanic voice-Mrs. Macfadyen c
e to get a kirk; he's been weel b
l no gang aff the track. Ye canna ca'
till waited, a
o' a man," and every one felt that the la