thae New Licht Moderates--'hireling shepherds,' he ca'd them? Noo
I'm no on mysel' wi' sae muckle speakin' aboot the deil. But the
minister was sayin' that the New Moderates threep [assert] that
there's nae deil at a'. He dee'd some time since!"

"Gae wa' wi' ye, John Scott! wha's gaun aboot doin' sae muckle ill
then, I wad like to ken?" said Meg Kissock.

"Dinna tell me," said Jock Gordon, "that the puir deil's deed, and
that we'll hae to pit up wi' Ebie Farrish. Na, na, Jock's maybe
daft, but he kens better than that!"

"They say," said John Scott, pulling meditatively at his cutty,
"that the pooer is vested noo in a kind o' comy-tee [committee]!"

"I dinna haud wi' comy-tees mysel'," replied Meg; "it's juist
haein' mony maisters, ilka yin mair cankersome and thrawn than
anither!"

"Weel, gin this news be true, there's a heep o' fowk in this
parish should be mentioned in his wull," said Jock Gordon,
significantly. "They're near kin till him--forby a heep o' bairns
that he has i' the laich-side o' the loch. They're that hard
there, they'll no gie a puir body a meal o' meat or the shelter o'
a barn."

"But," said Ebie Farrish, who had been thinking that, after all,
the new plan might have its conveniences, "gin there's nae deil to
tempt, there'll be nae deil to punish."