.'"

"I suppose the parents broke down at that," I said.

"Not they!" chuckled Dauvit, "for the corpse wasna their lassie ava; it
was auld Drucken Findlay the lodger."

I always like to hear Dauvit talk about ministers, and I encouraged him
to go on.

"It's a very queer thing, dominie, that a body ay wants to laugh at the
wrong time. In the kirk and at a funeral--that's when I want to laugh.

"I mind when the minister was awa' for his holidays, and there was an
auld minister frae the Heelands cam' to tak' his place. This auld man
had a habit o' readin' a verse and syne stoppin' to explain it to the
congregation.

"Weel aweel, wan Sunday he was readin' a chapter frae the Auld
Testament, and he cam' to the words: 'And the Angel of the Lord
appeared unto Hosea.' So he looks at the congregation ower his specs
and he says: 'The Angel of the Lord appeared unto Hosea.' Now,
prethren, we must ask ourselves this important question: Was Hosea
afraid? No, Hosea was not afraid. _You_ would have been afraid,
prethren; I would have been afraid. You and I would have begun to
quake and tremble, but Hosea was not afraid; he was a prave man, a pold
man. When we are in trouble let us remember that Hosea was not afraid.'

"So the auld man he turns ower the page and reads the next verse: 'And
Hosea was sore afraid.'"

"What did he say then?" I asked.

"He was a cunnin' auld deevil," said Dauvit, "for he gave a bit cough
and says: 'Prethren, that is a wrong translation from the original
Hebrew.'"

"I don't think you like ministers, Dauvit," I said.

He paused in his efforts to place a new needle in his sewing-machine.

"No, man, I do not," he said slowly. "Nowadays the kirk is just a job
like anything else; men go in for it for the loaves and fishes mostly,
and their prayers never get past the roof. And as for the
congregation, the kirk is just a respectable sort o' society. I tell
ye, dominie, that releegion is deid. At least, Christianity is deid.
That was bound to come; flowers, folk, hooses, trees, horses, aye, and
nations, have a birth, a youth, middle age, auld age, and then death.
It's the law o' nature, and a religion is no exception."

"True, O philosopher!" I said, "but there is always new life, and new
life comes from the old. The flower dies and its seed lives; man dies
and his seed inherit the earth. Christianity dies and--and what?"

"That may be," he said thoughtfully. "It may be that the new re