ny it maun be in the plan o' Providence. In
fact, gin a' wes in a private capaucity, a' michtna shave, but in ma
public capaucity, a 've nae alternative. It wud be a fine story tae
gang roond the Presbytery o' Muirtown that the Beadle o' Drumtochty hed
a beard."

His authority was supreme under the Doctor, and never was disputed by
man or beast save once, and John himself admitted that the
circumstances were quite peculiar. It was during the Doctor's famous
continental tour, when Drumsheugh fought with strange names in the
kirkyard, and the Presbytery supplied Drumtochty in turn. The minister
of St. David's, Muirtown, was so spiritual that he left his voice at
the foot of the pulpit stairs, and lived in the Song of Solomon, with
occasional excursions into the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and it was
thoughtless not to have told Mr. Curlew that two or three dogs--of
unexceptionable manners--attended our kirk with their masters. They
would no more have thought of brawling in church than John himself, and
they knew the parts of the service as well as the Doctor, but dogs have
been so made by our common Creator that they cannot abide falsetto, and
Mr. Curlew tried them beyond endurance. When he lifted up his voice in
"Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return," a long wail in reply,
from below a back seat where a shepherd was slumbering, proclaimed that
his appeal had not altogether failed. "Put out that dog," said the
preacher in a very natural voice, with a strong suggestion of bad
temper, "put that dog out immediately; it's most disgraceful that such
. . . eh, conduct should go, on in a Christian church. Where is the
church officer?"

"A'm the Beadle o' Drumtochty"--standing in his place--"an' a'll dae
yir pleesure;" and the occasion was too awful for any one, even the
dog's master, to assist, far less to laugh.

So Laddie was conducted down the passage--a dog who would not
condescend to resist--and led to the outer gate of the kirkyard, and
John came in amid a dead silence--for Mr. Curlew had not yet got his
pulpit note again--and faced the preacher.

"The dog 's oot, sir, but a' tak this congregation tae witness, ye
begood (began) it yirsel'," and it was said that Mr. Curlew's pious and
edifying chant was greatly restricted in country kirks from that day.

It was not given to the beadle to sit with the elders in that famous
court of morals which is called the Kirk Session, and of which strange
stories are t