round to the opening and peered in, but could see nothing.
"Alec," says I, "come oot this moment!"

"Nae lickin', then, faither?" says a voice out of the wicket.

"No, if ye come oot an' tell the truth like a man."

So I took him ben to the "room" to be more solemn-like, and bade him
tell the whole story from the start. This he did fairly on the whole, I
am bound to confess, with sundry questions and reminders here and there
from his mother and me.

"Weel, mither, the way o' it was this. We had only a half-day yesterday
at the schule," he began, "for the maister was gaun to a funeral; an'
when I cam' oot at denner-time I saw Airchie Marchbanks, an' he said
that his faither was gaun up the lochside veesitin', that he was gaun,
too, an' if I likit I could hing on ahint. So I hid my buiks aneath a
stane--"

"Ye destructionfu' vagabond, I'll get yer faither to gie ye a guid--"

"But, mither, it was a big braid stane. They're better there than
cadgin' them hame an' maybe lossin' them. An' my faither promised that
there was to be nae lickin' if I telt the truth."

"Weel, never mind the buiks," said I, for this had nothing to do with
the minister's letter. "Gae on wi' your story."

"The minister startit aboot twa o'clock wi' the auld meer in the shafts,
Airchie on the front seat aside his faither, an' me sittin' on the step
ahint."

"Did the minister ken ye war there?" asked his mother.

"Nae fears!" said Alexander M'Quhirr the younger, unabashed. It is a
constant wonder to his mother whom he takes after. But it is no great
wonder to me. It had been indeed a greater wonderment to me that Alec
should so readily promise to accompany the minister; for whenever either
a policeman or a minister is seen within miles of Drumquhat, my lad
takes the shortest cut for the fastnesses of Drumquhat Bank, there to
lie like one of his hunted forebears of the persecution, till the clear
buttons or the black coat have been carefully watched off the premises.

"The first place where the minister gaed," continued my son, "was the
clauchan o' Milnthird. He was gaun to see Leezie Scott, her that has
been ill sae lang. He gaed in there an' bade a gey while, wi' Airchie
haudin' ae side o' the horse's heid an' me the ither--no' that auld Jess
wad hae run away if ye had tied a kettle to her tail--"

"Be mair circumspect in yer talk," said his mother; "mind it's a
minister's horse!"

"Weel, onyway, I could see through the wundy, an' the l