An' if you'll bide a' nicht," he said, "we'll be awfu'
pleased. An' I'll chain up the denner bell i' the dog's cooch juist
for that nicht."

Ay, weel! it's fine lauchin' noo when it's a' ower. But if you'd been
in my place, you wudna lauchen muckle, I'se warrant.

IV.

A TALK ABOUT HEAVEN.

Sandy got a terrible dose o' the cauld lest week. I never hardly saw
him so bad. He was ootbye at the plooin' match lest Wedensday, an'
he's hardly ever been ootower the door sin' syne. There was a nesty
plook cam' oot juist abune his lug on Setarday, an' he cudna get on his
lum hat; so he had to bide at hame a' Sabbath, an' he spent the feck o'
the day i' the hoose readin' Tammas Boston's "Power-fold State" an' the
"Pilgrim's Progress." Ye see, Sandy's a bit o' a theologian aye when
he's onweel. If he's keepit i' the hoose wi' a host or a sair heid,
Sandy juist tak's a dose o' medicin', an' starts to wirry awa' at
Bunyan or the Bible. He's a queer cratur that wey, for as halikit a
character as he is.

But we had a kind o' a kirk o' oor ain on Sabbath i' the forenicht, for
Dauvid Kenawee cam' in, an' syne Bandy Wobster; an' they werena weel
set doon when in cam' Jacob Teylor, the smith, an' Stumpie Mertin alang
wi' them. Gairner Winton cam' in to speer what had come ower Sandy,
for he hadna seen him at the kirk. Ye never saw sic a hoosefu'! Sandy
was sittin' at the fireside wi' an auld greatcoat an' a hairy bonnet
on, an' a' the sax o' them fell to the crackin', ye never heard the
like. Ye wudda really thocht it was a meetin' o' the Presbitree--they
were a' speaking that throwither.

"An' what was the minister on the nicht, Gairner?" I says, says I,
juist to stop them yabblin' aboot politicks, an' a' the like o' that
nonsense on Sabbath nicht.

"He had twa texts the nicht, Bawbie," said the Gairner. "He took the
wirds in Second Kings, second an' elevent, an' in Luke, nint an'
thirtieth, an' a fine discoorse he made o't, aboot Elijah bein' taen up
to heaven in the fiery chariot, an' comin' again a hunder or a thoosand
'ear efter, juist the same billie as he gaed awa'. He made oot that
we'd meet a' oor deid freends in heaven again, an' juist ken them the
same as though they'd only been awa' frae hame for a cheenge for a
while."

"I dinna haud wi' yon view o' the thing ava," said Bandy Wobster. "He
wud hae's a' believe that fowk never grow a bit aulder in heaven. The
thing appears to me to be ridic'lous.