ened in the year I was licensed, that the town council, the
Lord Eglinton that was shot being then provost, took in the late Thomas
Bowet to be a counsellor; and Thomas, not being versed in election
matters, yet minding to please his lordship (for, like the rest of the
council, he had always a proper veneration for those in power), he, as I
was saying, consulted Joseph Boyd the weaver, who was then Dean of Guild,
as to the way of voting; whereupon Joseph, who was a discreet man, said
to him, "Ye'll just say as I say, and I'll say what Bailie Shaw says, for
he will do what my lord bids him"; which was as peaceful a way of sending
up a member to Parliament as could well be devised.

But you know that politics are far from my hand--they belong to the
temporalities of the community; and the ministers of peace and goodwill
to man should neither make nor meddle with them. I wish, however, that
these tumultuous elections were well over, for they have had an effect on
the per cents, where our bit legacy is funded; and it would terrify you
to hear what we have thereby already lost. We have not, however, lost so
much but that I can spare a little to the poor among my people; so you
will, in the dry weather, after the seed-time, hire two-three thackers to
mend the thack on the roofs of such of the cottars' houses as stand in
need of mending, and banker M---y will pay the expense; and I beg you to
go to him on receipt hereof, for he has a line for yourself, which you
will be sure to accept as a testimony from me for the great trouble that
my absence from the parish has given to you among my people, and I am,
dear sir, your friend and pastor,

Z. PRINGLE.

As Mrs. Glibbans would not permit Mr. Snodgrass to return with her to the
manse, he pursued his journey alone to the Kirkgate of Irvine, where he
found Miss Mally Glencairn on the eve of sitting down to her solitary
tea. On seeing her visitor enter, after the first compliments on the
state of health and weather were over, she expressed her hopes that he
had not drank tea; and, on receiving a negative, which she did not quite
expect, as she thought he had been perhaps invited by some of her
neighbours, she put in an additional spoonful on his account; and brought
from her corner cupboard with the glass door, an ancient French
pickle-bottle, in which she had preserved, since the great tea-drinking
formerly mentioned,