lasses that were so sent ever thinking of making less than a day's
play on every such occasion. In a word, it is not to be told how
the second Mrs Balwhidder, my wife, showed the value of flying time,
even to the concerns of this world, and was the mean of giving a
life and energy to the housewifery of the parish, that has made many
a one beek his shins in comfort, that would otherwise have had but a
cold coal to blow at. Indeed, Mr, Kibbock, her father, was a man
beyond the common, and had an insight of things, by which he was
enabled to draw profit and advantage, where others could only see
risk and detriment. He planted mounts of fir-trees on the bleak and
barren tops of the hills of his farm, the which everybody, and I
among the rest, considered as a thrashing of the water and raising
of bells. But as his rack ran his trees grew, and the plantations
supplied him with stabs to make STAKE AND RICE between his fields,
which soon gave them a trig and orderly appearance, such as had
never before been seen in the west country; and his example has, in
this matter, been so followed, that I have heard travellers say, who
have been in foreign countries, that the shire of Ayr, for its bonny
round green plantings on the tops of the hills, is above comparison
either with Italy or Switzerland, where the hills are, as it were,
in a state of nature.

Upon the whole, this was a busy year in the parish, and the seeds of
many great improvements were laid. The king's road, the which then
ran through the Vennel, was mended; but it was not till some years
after, as I shall record by-and-by, that the trust-road, as it was
called, was made, the which had the effect of turning the town
inside out.

Before I conclude, it is proper to mention that the kirk-bell, which