daughter Effie or Euphemia, as she was called by Miss Sabrina, the
schoolmistress, was growing up to be a gleg and clever quean; she
was, indeed, such a spirit in her way, that the folks called her
Spunkie; while her son William, that was the youngest of the five,
was making a wonderful proficiency with Mr Lorimore. He was indeed
a douce, well-doing laddie, of a composed nature; insomuch that the
master said he was surely chosen for the ministry. In short, the
more I think on what befell this family, and of the great meekness
and Christian worth of the parent, I verily believe there never
could have been in any parish such a manifestation of the truth,
that they who put their trust in the Lord, are sure of having a
friend that will never forsake them.



CHAPTER XI YEAR 1770



This blessed Ann. Dom. was one of the Sabbaths of my ministry. When
I look back upon it, all is quiet and good order: the darkest cloud
of the smuggling had passed over, at least from my people, and the
rumours of rebellion in America were but like the distant sound of
the bars of Ayr. We sat, as it were, in a lown and pleasant place,
beholding our prosperity, like the apple-tree adorned with her
garlands of flourishes, in the first fair mornings of the spring,
when the birds were returning thanks to their Maker for the coming
again of the seed-time, and the busy bee goeth forth from her cell,
to gather honey from the flowers of the field, and the broom of the
hill, and the blue-bells and gowans, which Nature, with a gracious