donsie body, Willy Shachle, the betherel, that when I got my legacy,
he should get a guinea, which would be more to him than if the
colonel had died at home, and he had had the howking of his grave;
you may therefore, in the meantime, give Willy a crown, and be sure
to warn him well no to get fou with it, for I'll be very angry if he
does. But what in this matter will need all your skill, is the
giving of the remaining five pounds to auld Miss Betty Peerie; being
a gentlewoman both by blood and education, she's a very slimmer
affair to handle in a doing of this kind. But I am persuaded she's
in as great necessity as many that seem far poorer, especially since
the muslin flowering has gone so down. Her bits of brats are sairly
worn, though she keeps out an apparition of gentility. Now, for all
this trouble, I will give you an account of what we have been doing
since my last.

When we had gotten ourselves made up in order, we went, with Andrew
Pringle, my son, to the counting-house, and had a satisfactory vista
of the residue; but it will be some time before things can be
settled--indeed, I fear, not for months to come--so that I have been
thinking, if the parish was pleased with Mr. Snodgrass, it might be
my duty to my people to give up to him my stipend, and let him be
appointed not only helper, but successor likewise. It would not be
right of me to give the manse, both because he's a young and
inexperienced man, and cannot, in the course of nature, have got
into the way of visiting the sick-beds of the frail, which is the
main part of a pastor's duty, and likewise, because I wish to die,
as I have lived, among my people. But, when all's settled, I will
know better what to do.

When we had got an inkling from Mr. Argent of what the colonel has