ca'd them; but the serious were o' opinion there
was little service for sae mony, when the hail o' God's Word would gang
in the neuk of a plaid. Then he wad sit half the day and half the nicht
forby, which was scant decent--writin', nae less; and first they were
feard he wad read his sermons; and syne it proved he was writin' a
book himsel', which was surely no fittin' for ane of his years an' sma'
experience.

Onyway, it behooved him to get an auld, decent wife to keep the manse
for him an' see to his bit denners; and he was recommended to an auld
limmer,--Janet M'Clour, they ca'd her,--and sae far left to himsel' as
to be ower-persuaded. There was mony advised him to the contrar', for
Janet was mair than suspeckit by the best folk in Ba'weary. Lang or
that, she had had a wean to a dragoon; she hadnae come forrit for maybe
thretty year; and bairns had seen her mumblin' to hersel' up on Key's
Loan in the gloamin', whilk was an unco time an' place for a God-fearin'
woman. Howsoever, it was the laird himsel' that had first tauld the
minister o' Janet; and in thae days he wad have gane a far gate to
pleesure the laird. When folk tauld him that Janet was sib to the deil,
it was a' superstition by his way of it; and' when they cast up the
Bible to him, an' the witch of Endor, he wad threep it doun their
thrapples that thir days were a' gane by, and the deil was mercifully
restrained.

Weel, when it got about the clachan that Janet M'Clour was to be servant
at the manse, the folk were fair mad wi' her an' him thegether; and some
o' the guidwives had nae better to dae than get round her door-cheeks
and chairge her wi' a' that was kent again' her, frae the sodger's bairn
to John Tamson's twa kye. She was nae great speaker; folk usually let
her gang her ain gait, an' she let them gang theirs, wi' neither fair
guid-e'en nor fair guid-day; but when she buckled to, she had a tongue
to deave the miller. Up she got, an' there wasnae an auld story in
Ba'weary but she gart somebody lowp for it that day; they couldnae
say ae thing but she could say twa to it; till, at the hinder end, the
guidwives up and claught haud of her, and clawed the coats aff her back,
and pu'd her doun the clachan to the water o' Dule, to see if she were
a witch or no, soum or droun. The carline skirled till ye could hear her
at the Hangin' Shaw, and she focht like ten; there was mony a guid wife
bure the mark of her neist day an' mony a lang day after; and ju