must turn your face towards me!" At the which, he turned round to
be sure, but there he presented the same show as his back. I was
confounded, and did not know what to say, but cried out with a voice
of anger--"Nichol, Nichol! if ye had been a' back, ye wouldna hae
been there this day;" which had such an effect on the whole
congregation, that the poor fellow suffered afterwards more
derision, than if I had rebuked him in the manner prescribed by the
session.

This affair, with the previous advice of Mr Auld, was, however, a
warning to me, that no pastor of his parish should be long without a
helpmate. Accordingly, as soon as the year was out, I set myself
earnestly about the search for one; but as the particulars fall
properly within the scope and chronicle of the next year, I must
reserve them for it; and I do not recollect that any thing more
particular befell in this, excepting that William Mutchkins, the
father of Mr Mutchkins, the great spirit-dealer in Glasgow, set up a
change-house in the clachan, which was the first in the parish, and
which, if I could have helped, would have been the last; for it was
opening a howf to all manner of wickedness, and was an immediate get
and offspring of the smuggling trade, against which I had so set my
countenance. But William Mutchkins himself was a respectable man,
and no house could be better ordered than his change. At a stated
hour he made family worship, for he brought up his children in the
fear of God and the Christian religion; and although the house was
full, he would go in to the customers, and ask them if they would
want anything for half an hour, for that he was going to make
exercise with his family; and many a wayfaring traveller has joined
in the prayer. There is no such thing, I fear, nowadays, of
publicans entertaining travellers in this manner.