the parish minister, the town-drummer, the
mole-catcher, or the poaching weaver, who had the night before leistered
a prime kipper at Rachan Mill, by the flare of a tarry wisp, or brought
home his surreptitious gray hen or _maukin_ from the wilds of Dunsyre or
the dreary Lang Whang.[15]

[15] With the practices of this last worthy, when carried on
moderately, and for the sport's sake, he had a special
sympathy.

This singular man came to the manse every Friday evening for many years,
and he and my father discussed everything and everybody;--beginning with
tough, strong head work--a bout at wrestling, be it Caesar's Bridge, the
Epistles of Phalaris, the import of {men} and {de}, the Catholic
question, or the great roots of Christian faith; ending with the latest
joke in the town or the _West Raw_, the last effusion by Affleck, tailor
and poet, the last blunder of AEsop the apothecary, and the last repartee
of the village fool, with the week's Edinburgh and Glasgow news by their
respective carriers; the whole little life, sad and humorous--who had
been born, and who was dying or dead, married or about to be, for the
past eight days.[16]

[16] I believe this was the true though secret source of much of
my father's knowledge of the minute personal history of
every one in his region, which,--to his people, knowing his
reserved manner and his devotion to his studies, and his so
rarely meeting them or speaking to them except from the
pulpit, or at a diet of visitation, was a perpetual wonder,
and of which he made great use in his dealings with his
afflicted or erring "members."

This amused, and, in the true sense, diverted my father, and gratified
his curiosity, which was great, and his love of men, as well as for man.
He was shy, and unwilling to ask what he longed to know, liking better
to have it given him without the asking; and no one could do this better
than "Uncle Johnston."

You may readily understand what a thorough exercise and diversion of an
intellectual and social kind this was, for they were neither of them men
to shirk from close gripes, or trifle and flourish with their weapons;
they laid on and spared not. And then my uncle had generally some
special nut of his own to crack, some thesis to fling down and offer
battle on, some "particle" to energize upon; for though quiet and calm,
he was thoroughly combative, and enjoyed see