is
own personal safety, "But I have much Highland blood, you know, and
plenty of Lowland Scotch, too."

Alas! how little he knew of the spirit of the McBeth! "A Lowlander!"
It was all Catchach could utter, but the tone in which he said it
showed plainly that if Mr. Egerton had confessed to being a full-blood
native of the South Sea Islands it would have been infinitely better.
"A Lowlander!" repeated the Highlander with withering scorn, "Tonal
Neil, Tonal Neil will pe saying she would haf the Gaelic----" The rest
was lost to the ears of the despised Lowlander in a wild outpouring of
Gaelic as Catchach turned and went raging down the road to wreak
vengeance on the author of his disappointment.

The young minister continued on his way in great annoyance. Under any
other circumstances the humour of the situation would have appealed to
him, but the name of Donald Neil had driven away all the fun. In spite
of his free and easy manner, John Egerton was intensely sensitive about
his dignity as a minister, and to find himself the victim of a
practical joke at the hands of the most influential young man of his
congregation was anything but pleasant.

Had he seen the huge figure of young Andrew Johnstone disentangle
itself from the raspberry bushes by the roadside and steal quietly
along the edge of the field to where his idle team was standing, he
would have been still more incensed; and had he chanced to look back
when he reached the hilltop and noticed the same young man leaning
weakly against his horses and wiping the tears from his eyes, he would
have felt like administering a sound thrashing to at least two of the
young people of his congregation.

He arrived at the Johnstone household at a time when he was
particularly welcome to his host. Old Andrew had spent the early part
of the afternoon arguing with his son upon certain hard points of
doctrine. That a youth of Wee Andra's professions should presume to
give any sort of an opinion whatever upon the Shorter Catechism was, in
his father's eyes, nothing short of impious. But, as the young man was
of that class that rush in where angels fear to tread, he had given his
views on predestination without any hesitancy and had gone off to the
field leaving his father in a very bad humour. Wee Andra himself was
particularly happy, for he took an unfilial delight in troubling his
paternal relative. At heart he was respectful and dutiful and if any
one had dared to bre