that the incoming of Major Gilchrist was to be deplored. The old
men that had a light labour in keeping the policy in order, were
thrown out of bread, and could do little; and the poor women that
whiles got a bit and a drap from the kitchen of the family, soon
felt the change, so that by little and little we were obligated to
give help from the session; insomuch that, before the end of the
year, I was necessitated to preach a discourse on almsgiving,
specially for the benefit of our own poor, a thing never before
known in the parish.

But one good thing came from the Gilchrists to Mrs Malcolm. Miss
Girzie, whom they called Lady Skimmilk, had been in a very penurious
way as a seamstress, in the Gorbals of Glasgow, while her brother
was making the fortune in India, and she was a clever needle-woman--
none better, as it was said; and she, having some things to make,
took Kate Malcolm to help her in the coarse work; and Kate, being a
nimble and birky thing, was so useful to the lady, and the
complaining man the major, that they invited her to stay with them
at the Breadland for the winter, where, although she was holden to
her seam from morning to night, her food lightened the hand of her
mother, who, for the first time since her coming into the parish,
found the penny for the day's darg more than was needed for the
meal-basin; and the tea-drinking was beginning to spread more
openly, insomuch that, by the advice of the first Mrs Balwhidder,
Mrs Malcolm took in tea to sell, and in this way was enabled to eke
something to the small profits of her wheel. Thus the tide that had
been so long ebbing to her, began to turn; and here I am bound in
truth to say, that although I never could abide the smuggling, both
on its own account, and the evils that grew therefrom to the country
side, I lost some of my dislike to the tea after Mrs Malcolm began