dean.

But, och how! this was the last happy summer that we had for many a
year in the parish; and an omen of the dule that ensued, was in a
sacrilegious theft that a daft woman, Jenny Gaffaw, and her idiot
daughter, did in the kirk, by tearing off and stealing the green
serge lining of my lord's pew, to make, as they said, a hap for
their shoulders in the cold weather--saving, however, the sin, we
paid no attention at the time to the mischief and tribulation that
so unheard-of a trespass boded to us all. It took place about Yule,
when the weather was cold and frosty, and poor Jenny was not very
able to go about seeking her meat as usual. The deed, however, was
mainly done by her daughter, who, when brought before me, said, "her
poor mother's back had mair need of claes than the kirk-boards;"
which was so true a thing, that I could not punish her, but wrote
anent it to my lord, who not only overlooked the offence, but sent
orders to the servants at the castle to be kind to the poor woman,
and the natural, her daughter.



CHAPTER XV YEAR 1774



When I look back on this year, and compare what happened therein
with the things that had gone before, I am grieved to the heart, and
pressed down with an afflicted spirit. We had, as may be read,
trials and tribulations in the days that were past; and in the rank
and boisterous times of the smuggling there was much sin and blemish