"Keep's a'," whispered Hillocks, clutching my arm, "it's little
better than the ill place. I wish to gudeness I wes safe in ma ain
hoose."

These were only indecisive skirmishes, for one evening Donald came
to my den with despair written on every feature, and I knew that
fighting had begun at the centre, and that he was worsted.

It was half an hour before he became articulate, during which time
he sighed as if the end of all things had come, and I caught the
word scapegoat twice, but at last he told me that he had resigned
his eldership, and would absent himself in future from the Free
Kirk.

"It hass been a weary winter when minister and people hef gone into
captivity, and on Sabbath the word wass taken altogether from the
minister's mouth, and he spake a language which we understood not
[it was the first of three sermons on the Hexateuch, and had treated
of the Jehovistic and Elohistic documents with much learning], and I
will be asking all the way back, 'Iss it I?' 'Iss it I?'

"Oh yes, and when I opened my Bible this iss the word I will see,
'That thou doest do quickly,' and I knew it wass my sins that had
brought great judgments on the people, and turned the minister into
a man of stammering lips and another tongue.

"It wass a mercy that the roof did not fall and bury all the people
with me; but we will not be tempting the Almighty, for I hef gone
outside, and now there will be peace and blessing."