Moreover, the reputation of a reserve of savagery did him no harm, and
induced many an elder boy who had been "trapped" to forego the pleasure
of "warming him after the schule comes oot," which was the formal
challenge of Whinnyliggate chivalry.

But this Sabbath morning at the "buik," when the solemnity of the week
had culminated, and the portion was being read, Walter detected a quaint
antiquity in the pronunciation of a Bible name. His hand shot out,
cracking like a pistol, and, while the family waited for the heavens to
fall, Walter boldly "trapped" the priest of the household at his own
family altar!

Saunders M'Quhirr stopped, and darted one sharp, severe glance at the
boy's eager face. But even as he looked, his face mellowed into what his
son Alec to this day thinks may have been the ghost of a smile. But this
he mentions to no one, for, after all, Saunders is his father.

The book was closed. "Let us pray," Saunders said.

The prayer was not one to be forgotten. There was a yearning refrain in
it, a cry for more worthiness in those whom God had so highly favoured.
Saunders was allowed to be highly gifted in intercession. But he was
also considered to have some strange notions for a God-fearing man.

For instance, he would not permit any of his children to be taught by
heart any prayer besides the Lord's Prayer. After repeating that, they
were encouraged to ask from God whatever they wanted, and were never
reproved, however strange or incongruous their supplications might be.
Saunders simply told them that if what they asked was not for their good
they would not get it--a fact which, he said, "they had as lief learn