und them to that extent that they would gossip with him by the hour
over past days, and Betty Macfarlane was so carried by the minister's
sympathy that she brought out from hidden places some finery of her
youth, and Carmichael was found by Miss Carnegie arranging a faded
Paisley shawl on Betty's shoulders. And was it not this same gay Free
Kirkman who trained an eleven to such perfection on a field of
Drumsheugh's that they beat the second eleven of Muirtown gloriously?
on which occasion Tammas Mitchell, by the keenness of his eye and the
strength of his arm, made forty-four runs; and being congratulated by
Drumtochty as he carried his bat, opened his mouth for the first time
that day, saying, "Awa wi' ye."

[Illustration: Would gossip with him by the hour.]

So it came to pass that notwithstanding his unholy tendency to Biblical
criticism and other theological pedantry, Drumtochty loved Carmichael
because he was a man; and Dr. Davidson, lighting upon him in Hillocks'
garden, with the family round him full of joy, would threaten him with
a prosecution for poaching under the ecclesiastical Game Laws, and end
by insisting upon him coming to dinner at the manse, when he might
explain his conduct. Drumtochty loved him for his very imperfections,
and follows his career unto this day with undying interest, recalling
his various escapades with huge delight, and declaring to strangers
that even in his callow days they had discovered that Carmichael was a
preacher.

Carmichael had occasional fits of order, when he repented of his
desultory ways, and began afresh with much diligence, writing out the
names of the congregation with full details--he once got as far as
Menzies before he lost the book--mapping the parish into districts, and
planning an elaborate visitation. It may have been an accident that
the district he chose for experiment embraced Tochty Lodge--where the
Carnegies had just settled--but it was natural that his first effort
should be thorough. There were exactly ten Free Kirk families from
Tochty Lodge eastwards, and some of these still speak with feeling of
the attention they received, which exceeded all they had ever known
before or since.

"It wesna that he sat sae lang as a 've heard o' him daein' in the
heich Glen, but it wes the times he cam'," Mrs. Stirton used to
expatiate, "maybe twice a week for a month. He hed a wy o' comin'
through Tochty Wood--the shade helpit him tae study, he said--an'
jum