The Little Minister

and peered at it for days, but had they seen into the inside of it they would have weaved few webs until the session had sat on the minister. The affair baffled me at th

d then, instead of taking my old seat, the fourth from the pulpit, I sat down near the plate, where I could look at Margaret without her seeing me. To spare her that agony I even stole away as the last word of the benediction was pronounced, and my haste scandalised many, for with Auld Lichts it is not customary to retire quickly from the church after the manner

keep from his wife his great pride in her. His horse, Catlaw, on the other hand, he told outright what he thought of it, praising it to its face and blackguarding it as it deserved, and I have seen him when completely baffled by the brute, sit down before it on a stone and thus harangue: "You think you're

nableness of humanity, which treated him graciously when he had a letter for it, but

tell. The farmer, his wife and three children, holding each other's hands, stretched across the road. Birse was a little behind, but a conversation was

rawing near, and just as I was to reply, "It

, but did not contradict her, for it is Established, and so neither here nor the

ishart on

walking round his wife to get nearer me. "Dominie,

rrupted Elspeth shar

have you no on yo

hae the dagont oncanny thin

r, then," said Elspeth

nteel 'lastic-sided boots canna forget them till he takes them aff

lspeth's kitchen was a pleasant place, "but it's grand,

at they were speak

began the post

aying it," said Waste

pted Elspeth, "You've been roaring the

he was. Oh, dominie, you should hae heard him ladling it on to Lang Tammas, no by name but in si

s properly humbled, 'Ay, Tammas,' I says, 'them that discourse was preached against, winna think themselves seven feet men for a while a

ching at the whole cl

sp

na cast it at us, for, my certie, if the men got it frae

his very words or something like them. 'Adam,' says he

d, "for when he said that, he pointed his finger direc

chose such a subject to- day. I thought

what happened afore he began the afternoon sermon

"ever since we left the kirk door. Tod, we'v

le to say about a minister. Dagont, to hae ane keeps a body out o' langour. Ay, but this

for the farmer w

said Birse, "for a h

his porridge as usual

as skeered hersel', a

rt wasna i

ot there?" I a

let her out in

ll me what happened,

he afternoon diet began in the ordinary way, and a' was richt until we came to the sermon.

said Waster Lunny, "m

l book to find; ay

y heart," said Elspeth, scornful

irk to find out if he had puzzled onybody, and so there was a kind o' a competition among the congregation wha would lay hand on it first.

fe. "I was ashamed to see Eppie McLaren looking up t

aid the post, "for the sly cuttie open

but as far back as I can mind, Ezra has done me. Mony a time afore I start for the kirk I take my Bible to a quiet place and look Ezra up. In the very pew I says c

like the weavers that wouldna fecht.

the world forby Ezra. How is cripples aye so puffed up mair than

I was terrified the minister wou

at, for was he no baffl

hae telled you a dozen times he found

her way," said her husband, doggedly

ar it up," suggested the p

e what happe

elled you?" Birse sai

w Eppie McLaren was getting on. Just at that minute I heard a groan frae the pulpit. It didna stop short o' a groan. Ay, you may be sure I looked quick at the minister, and there I saw

Birse, "put up his h

thocht it was t

e tried to speak, and twi

dna see it mysel', for a' this time you may picture me hunting sava

e leg, wondering whether he should run to

Mr. Dishart, or rather it had ta'en a new turn. He

," said the post, "He didna swear, of c

Waster Lunny, "for I

sweat running

he minister shook himsel' like one wakening frae a nasty dream, and he cr

, "he cries, 'You will find the text i

ng the most amazing thing to my mind that ever happened in the town of Thrums. What

r Lunny, "though I o

ad he said Genesis t

a. Was it no provokin

eds an able-bodied

twenty- five minutes, but powerful though he was I would r

awe-inspiring. Whaur has he got sic a knowledge of women? He riddl

ebrew. You can howk ony mortal thing out o' the original Hebrew, the which all ministers hae at t

h insisted, "but young lassies that leads men

hey try their hands on Mr. Dis

The Hebrew's a grand thing, thoug

uff. What a scorn he has for bonny faces and toom souls! I dinna deny but what a bonny face fell takes me, but Mr. Dishart wouldna gie a blade o' gra

he town for fuller news. But all through the night it snowed, and next day, and then intermittingly for many days, and every fall took the school miles farther away from Thrums. Birse and the crows had now the glen road to themselves, and even Birse had twice or thrice to bed

and to spare, for I hear tell there's saxteen explanations in the Tenements alone. As Tammas Haggart

at duty as usual to the kirk-officer. Weel, Tammas, being precentor, has a richt, as you ken, to leave the kirk by the session-house door, just like the minister himsel'. He did so that afternoon, and what, think you, did he see? He saw Mr. Dishart tearing a page out o' the Bible, and flinging it savagely into the session-house fire. You dinna credit it? Weel, it's staggering, but there

Established minister. That fervent Auld Licht, Snecky Hobart, feeling that Gavin's action was unsound, had gone on the following Sabbath to the parish kirk and sat under Mr. Duthie. But Mr

After preaching impromptu for an hour and twenty-five minutes, it could never be said of Gavin that he needed to read. He became more popular than e

ptian hid there. It was the great pulpit Bible which remains in the church as a rule, but Gavin had taken it home the previous day to make some of its loose pages secure with paste. He had studied from it on the day

ling it? I will never tell that you allowed me to be called Mrs. Dishart befo