The Little Minister

we have ever used, and this is not true of it. Doubtless we have interests in common, from which a place so near (but the road is heavy) as Tilliedrum is shut

rom the Tanage brae to Haggart's road was to change one's friends. A kirk- wynd weaver might kill his swine and Tillyloss not know of it until boys ran westward hitting each

did not look up quickly he was round the corner. His visiting exhausted him only less than his zeal in the pulpit, from which, according to report, he staggered damp with perspiration to the vestry, where Hendry Munn wrung him like a wet cloth. A deaf lady, celebrated for giving out her washing, compelled him to hold her trumpet until she had peered into all his crannies, with the Shorter Catechism for a lantern. Janet Dundas told him, in answer to his knock, that she cou

o Easie's, but I'm thinking you would stop

his mother, who never crossed the threshold save to go to church (though her activity at home was among the marvels Jean sometimes slipped down to the Tenements to announce). when Wearyw

sent me on this errand not a soul has spoken to me the day; ay, mony a an

nt along the Tenements, which smelled at that hou

a disgraced man for accepting. It's Gospel that my ain wife is short wi' me when I've on my uniform, though weel she kens that I would rather hae

on to you that you are di

nder so muckle that it makes him break windows, though a peaceably-disposed man till I was appointed. And

ay they wo

ap into the gutters. If they would speak I wouldna com

er, had spo

d or no converted. When he was blind drunk he would order m

"It's a weary warld, and nobody bides in't," as he went his melanchol

the soldiers still

I'll let you see that for yoursel' at me head o' th

ady out, and that in the windmill d

the policeman cried, but got no

he time o' year," h

shouted, "though we had rai

hint the door. You're doing an onlawfu

o that?" some o

r to it

d another six r

man. And now I'll hae to turn back, for the very anes that winna let

on any Sabbath morning washing themselves in the burn that trickled hard by. Rob's s

rse me. He hasna cursed me," Micah added, proudly, "for an aught days come Sabbath. Hearken to hi

d how he heated his house. He made a fire of peat, and on it placed one end of a tree trunk that might be six feet long. As the tree burned away it was pushed further into the fireplace, and a roaring fire could always be got

' the drink, and, says he. 'Mr. Dishart,' he says, 'if you'll let me break out nows and nans, I could, bide straucht atween times, but I canna keep sober if I hinna a drink to look forrit to.' Ay, my father prigged sair to get one fou day in the month, and he said, 'S

n me o' a sudden aye, and it may be back afore you're hame.' 'Then come to me at once,' says Mr. Dishart; but my father

hould die drunk, it would be a michty gratification to me to ken that you had the siller to bury me respectable without ony help frae the poor's rates.' The minister wasna for taking it at first, but he took it when he saw how earne

an face. My book-shelves were made by a blind man who could identify by their steps nearly all who passed his window. Yet he has admitted to me that he could not tell wherein my steps d

g broke, but she would not have come upon him like a witch. There are, I dare say, many lovers who would never have been drawn to each other had they met for the first ti

and danced devilishly, it was said, at night. The little minister knew them by repute as a race of giants, and that not many persons w

on the edge of the wood, went with him, and for a ti

the Spittal, Mr.

use at the top of

ver looked

N

lord's young le

t is

dyship. She's no' a leddyship yet, but they're to be married soon, so I

eat difference

eddyship 'at is to be, that when she was at the school in Edinbury he wrote to her ilka day. Kaytherine Crummie telled me that, and she says aince you're used to it, writing letters is as easy as skinning moles. I dinna ken what they can write sic a heap about, but I daur say he gies her his views

did sh

ddyship that's to be to me, and I just glowered at her, for thinks I, 'Take your fill, Sanders, and whaur there's lords and leddyships, dinna waste a minute on colonels and honourable misses and sic like dirt.' Ay, but what w

at did

yne I came to, and says I, wi' a polite smirk, 'I'm thinking

re a cute ma

hink me the prettiest?' I dinna deny but what that staggered me, but I thocht a minute, and took a look at

ere and looked do

ckles wi' her fan fell sair, and aff she gaed. Ay, I consulted Tammas Haggart abou

ut destined to wither quickly in the hot air of towns, they had gone from Caddam, leaving nothing of themselves behind but a black mark burned by their fires into the ground. Thus they br

ncongruous as a wedding-dress at a funeral. Gavin was standing on grass, but there were patches of heather within sight, and broom, and the leaf of the blaeberry. Where the beeches had drawn up the earth with them as they grew, their roots ran this way and that, slippery to the feet and looking like disinterred bones. A squirrel appeared sud

tood on its confines, panting and afraid, for a wicked man pursued her; how he drew near, and she ran a little way into the wood, and he followed her, and she still ran, and still he followed, until both were for ever lost, and the bones

. Gavin was in the Caddam of past days, where the beautiful maiden wanders ever, waiting for him who is so pure that he may find her. He will wander over the tree-tops looking for her, with the moon for his lamp, and some night he will hear her s

Caddam that farmers use in summer, but leave in the back end of the year to leaves and pools. In Windyghoul there is either no wind or so much that it rushes do

ndyghoul. Soon she was within a few feet of the little minister, to whom singing, except when out of tune, was a suspicious th

eally of the average height, she was a little thing to the eyes of Gavin, who always f