CHAPTER XVI YEAR 1775



The regular course of nature is calm and orderly, and tempests and
troubles are but lapses from the accustomed sobriety with which
Providence works out the destined end of all things. From Yule till
Pace-Monday there had been a gradual subsidence of our personal and
parochial tribulations, and the spring, though late, set in bright
and beautiful, and was accompanied with the spirit of contentment;
so that, excepting the great concern that we all began to take in
the American rebellion, especially on account of Charles Malcolm
that was in the man-of-war, and of Captain Macadam that had married
Kate, we had throughout the better half of the year but little
molestation of any sort. I should, however, note the upshot of the
marriage.

By some cause that I do not recollect, if I ever had it properly
told, the regiment wherein the captain had bought his commission was
not sent to the plantations, but only over to Ireland, by which the
captain and his lady were allowed to prolong their stay in the
parish with his mother; and he, coming of age while he was among us,
in making a settlement on his wife, bought the house at the
Braehead, which was then just built by Thomas Shivers the mason, and
he gave that house, with a judicious income, to Mrs Malcolm, telling
her that it was not becoming, he having it in his power to do the
contrary, that she should any longer be dependent on her own