feckless wee bairns laid on the bed of sickness, and their poor
forlorn mother sitting by herself at the embers of a cauldrife fire;
her tow done, and no a bodle to buy more; drooping a silent and salt
tear for her babies, and thinking of days that war gone, and, like
Rachel weeping for her children, she would not be comforted. With
this I concluded, for my own heart filled full with the thought, and
there was a deep sob in the Church; verily it was Rachel weeping for
her children.

In the latter end of the year, the man-of-war, with Charles Malcolm
in her, came to the tail of the Bank at Greenock, to press men as it
was thought, and Charles got leave from his captain to come and see
his mother; and he brought with him Mr Howard, another midshipman,
the son of a great parliament man in London, which, as we have
tasted the sorrow, gave us some insight into the pomp of war,
Charles was now grown up into a fine young man, rattling, light-
hearted, and just a cordial of gladness, and his companion was every
bit like him. They were dressed in their fine gold-laced garbs and
nobody knew Charles when he came to the clachan, but all wondered,
for they were on horseback, and rode to the house where his mother
lived when he went away, but which was then occupied by Miss Sabrina
and her school. Miss Sabrina had never seen Charles, but she had
heard of him; and when he enquired for his mother, she guessed who
he was, and showed him the way to the new house that the captain had
bought for her.

Miss Sabrina, who was a little overly perjink at times, behaved
herself on this occasion with a true spirit, and gave her lassies
the play immediately; so that the news of Charles's return was
spread by them like wildfire, and there was a wonderful joy in the