book, he said, (and he was a man of good discretion), that the doing
of the book was a thing that would keep, but masterful servants were
a growing evil; so, upon his counselling, I resolved not to meddle
with the book till I was married again, but employ the interim,
between then and the turn of the year, in looking out for a prudent
woman to be my second wife, strictly intending, as I did perform,
not to mint a word about my choice, if I made one, till the whole
twelve months and a day, from the date of the first Mrs Balwhidder's
interment, had run out.

In this the hand of Providence was very visible, and lucky for me it
was that I had sent for Mr Auld when I did send, as the very week
following, a sound began to spread in the parish, that one of my
lassies had got herself with bairn, which was an awful thing to
think had happened in the house of her master, and that master a
minister of the gospel. Some there were, for backbiting
appertaineth to all conditions, that jealoused and wondered if I had
not a finger in the pie; which, when Mr Auld heard, he bestirred
himself in such a manful and godly way in my defence, as silenced
the clash, telling that I was utterly incapable of any such thing,
being a man of a guileless heart, and a spiritual simplicity, that
would be ornamental in a child. We then had the latheron summoned
before the session, and was not long of making her confess that the
father was Nichol Snipe, Lord Glencairn's gamekeeper; and both her
and Nichol were obligated to stand in the kirk: but Nichol was a
graceless reprobate, for he came with two coats, one buttoned behind
him, and another buttoned before him, and two wigs of my lord's,
lent him by the valet-de-chamer; the one over his face, and the
other in the right way; and he stood with his face to the church-
wall. When I saw him from the poopit, I said to him--"Nichol, you