that the pack on His back was their sins, which He was carrying away to
throw out of the world.

"Eh, wasna it fearfu' He should come by jist when we was fechtin'!" said
Sandy.

"Eh, na! it was a fine thing that! We micht hae been at it yet! But we
winna noo!--will we ever, Sandy?"

"Na, that we winna!"

"For," continued Andrew, "He said 'Lo, I am with you always!' And
suppose He werena, we daurna be that ahint His back we would na be afore
His face!"

"Do you railly think it _was_ Him, Andrew?"

"Weel," replied Andrew, "gien the deevil be goin' aboot like a roarin'
lion, seekin' whom he may devoor, as father says, it's no likely _He_
would na be goin' aboot as weel, seekin' to haud him aff o' 's!"

"Ay!" said Sandy.

"And noo," said the elder, "what are we to do?"

For Andrew, whom both father and mother judged the dreamiest of mortals,
was in reality the most practical being in the whole parish--so
practical that by and by people mocked him for a poet and a heretic,
because he did the things which they said they believed. Most
unpractical must every man appear who genuinely believes in the things