The Little Minister

e lay still swings at little windows like a great ghost pendulum. To me it is a homely smell, which I draw in with a great breath, but it was as strange to Margaret as the weavers thems

ite house with the green

his ferrets, and here, too, Beattie hanged himself, going straight to the clothes-posts for another rope when the first one broke, such was his determination. In the front Sanders Gilruth openly boasted (on Don's potato-pit) that by having a seat in two churches he could lie in bed on Sabbath a

pilling was to be superlatively good at one thing. Packages in a cart it set leaping like trout in a fishing-creel. Opposite the opening of the garden wall in the manse, where for many years there had been an intention

d was carpeted with moss that shone in the sun in a dozen shades of green and yellow. Three firs guarded the house from west winds, but blasts from the north often tore down the steep fields and skirled through the manse, banging all its doors at once.

in's predecessor could touch each of its walls without shifting his position. Every room save Margaret's had long-lidded beds, which close as if with shutters, but hers was coff-fronted, or comparatively open, w

large-hearted when he left it that I, who know there is good in all the world because of the lovable souls I have met in this corner of it, yet cannot hope that many are as near to God as he. The most gladsome thing in

stones. He was to depart on the morrow to the place of his birth, but he came to the manse to wish h

in the parlour. Then he added, as if he had asked too much, "May

ves to all who love Him and follow His commandments, spoke

t cherry- tree, because it kept out the light, but, you see, it outlives me. I grew old while looking for the axe. Only ye

back to Gavi

ry young, M

y twen

urden on the Lord. The young talk generously of relieving the old of their burdens, but the anxious heart is to the old when they see a load on the back of the young. Let me tell you, M

said anxiously, "that

change with the years. Many views that I held to in my youth and long afterwards are a pain to me now, and I am carrying away from Thrums m

pau

nervously, "that

phra

have parted stiffly. The old minister would rather have remained to die in his pulpit than surrender it to one who read his sermons. Ot

in which I have not had a marriage or prayed over a coffin. Ah, sir, these are the scenes that make the minister more than all his sermons. You must join the family, Mr. Dishart, or you

hesitatingly, "they t

a call from the

eligious, and so independent that they dare any one to help them, but if their wages were lessened they could not live. And so at talk of reduction they catch fire. Change of a

s for reducing the price of the web, made a bonfire of some of their doors, and terrified one of them into leaving Thrums. Under the command of some Chartists, t

as been p

gleaders were seized in their beds, Mr. Dishart, the people are determined not to be caught in that way again, and ever since the rising a watch has been kept by night on e

rs would n

suddenly I heard a voice cry sharply, 'Shoulder arms.' I could see no one, and after a moment I put it down to a freak of the wind. Then all at once the

ed, after a pause, "at my entreaty,

they would be frightened at our precentor, Lang Tammas, who seems to watch

centor had already put him through hi

d Mr. Carfrae. "Why,

led in a dizziness until he had walked a few paces. Gavin went with him to t

rting, "where you leave off, and my pr

with a sigh, "the world does not progress so quickl

ds had hurt him, turned and solemnly pointed his staff upward

ily he waved both his hands to her, and she answered with a smile, and then, in his boyishness, he jumped over a gooseberry bush. Immediately afterwards he reddened and tried to look venerable, for while in the air he

ught me," was Gavin's

erves!" w

had a servant in it. He boldly rang the bell, and the willing Jean answered it so promptly (in

lder any day. She had already conceived a romantic affection for her master; but to say "sir" to him-as she thirsted to do-would have been as difficult to her as to swallow oysters. So anxious was sh

t o' the well? It has been a drouth this aucht days, and the pumps is locked. Na," she said, as Gavin made a too liberal offer,

but Jean changed his message to: "A bowlful apiece

e'll include atheists among other denominations." The convers

kshanks wi' me," said

ower independent to be religious. I dinna gang

as sternly, "or you'll soon be whaur you would

Tammas," retorted the atheist; "but, ony way, if

sitting down on the b

e'll make anothe

your minister," said the p

n the heart I speak in all reverence. Lads, the minister h

ut when I saw him wi' his head bowed-like in prayer during the singing I says to rnysel', 'Thou art the man.

said, 'Thou art the man' to ilka ane o' them, and ju

. Urquhart, the ane t

was the lad that g

m, just being over anxious. He began bonny, flinging himself, like ane Inspired, at the pulpit door, but after Hendry Munn pointed at it and crie

r. Urquhart was in sic a ravel after it that when he gies out the first line o' the hunder and

ibbie Birse, "was that ane frae Aberdeen

e a genius, does he?' says the Doctor. 'Weel, then,' says he, 'dinna vote for him, fo

for I enjoyed sitting like a judge upon them so mu

ed, and ondoubtedly we've got the pick o' them. The only thing Mr. Dishart di

, it was a trick. Ilka ane o' thae young ministers has a sermon about looms for weaving congregations, and a second about beating swords into ploughshares for country places, and another on the great catch of fishes for fishing villag

the precentor, passionately,

nd, and he dug his teeth

ng now?" said

mond wa

ve and thirty-

ruickshanks, "you're aye quoting Scriptur

, we get it scalding when he comes to the sermon. I canna thol

necky," said James Cochrane, "let me

curler, I

ter pr

en his prayers, 'O Lord, let it haud for anither day, and keep the snaw awa'

ary thing, and sufficient to gie Mr. Dishart a

ecentor's box, but as sure as death I felt it boring through me. Rob is hard wood, though, and soon he was at his tricks again. Weel, the minister stopped a second time in the sermon, and so awful was the silence that a heap o' the congregation couldna keep their seats. I heard Rob breathing quick and strong. Mr. Dishart had his arm pointed at him a' this time, and at last he says sternly, 'Come forward.' Listen, Joseph Cruickshank

ay we was discussing the minister, and Sam'l Dickie wasna sure but what Mr. Dishart wore his hat rather far back on his head. You should have

wears-and how your minister wears too. I wouldna like

"mount straight to heaven, but your parap

y last words to you the nicht, the day'll come when you'll hae Mr. Dut

ntor, furiously; "that rather than see a U. P. preaching

with whom he had now to deal. But as he sat beside Mar

ed for the manse that was to give you an egg every mor

anted that I'm a kind o' troubled. It's hardly nat

thought she was asleep. But she was not. I dare say she saw at that moment Gavin in his first frock, and Gavin in knickerboc

own lay as still as salt. But a steady light showed in the south, and on pressing his face against the window he saw another in the west. Mr. Carfrae's wo