you doubt, you may try." Among some of his oddities, he had
a great admiration of a well-spring, a white calf, and a bonny lass; and
he never passed any of them in his way without doing them homage. Though
travelling on horseback, he would dismount to bathe his feet in a limpid
stream, as it gushed from the earth, or to caress a white calf, or to
salute a female--all which fantasies were united with the most primitive
innocence. And he never ate a meal, even in his own house, or when he
was a refugee in a hay stack or kiln barn, without exacting from his
wife and friends the most urgent _pressing_.

It was under the auspices of this warlike and singular apostle that my
father was ushered into the sacred office of a minister of the gospel.
He preached his first sermon in the church of his native parish; and,
according to the fashion of the times, at the close of the service, the
parish minister publicly criticised the discourses of the day. The young
preacher, in this instance, found favour in Paplay's eyes; and his
testimony in favour of the _plant_ which had sprung up among them was so
emphatic, and rendered so piquant by his odd figures of speech, that
William Douglas was long distinguished among his friends and neighbours
by the familiar designation of _Paplay's Plant_.

But there was another _plant_ that graced the manse, which was not
unobserved or unadmired by the young preacher--Jane Malcolm (the
daughter of a clergyman in a more remote parish, and niece of Paplay's
lady), a sweet flower, that had grown up in the wilderness, like "a
daisy on the mountain's side." It was in the nature of things that "the
loves of the plants" should be illustrated by the juxtaposition of the
two favourite flowers of the chivalrous parson. An affectionate but
secret attachment naturally grew out of the frequent visits which
"Paplay's Plant" paid to the manse; and these were multiplied in
consequence of William Douglas being appointed assistant to his
spiritual patron, whose decline into the vale of years had begun to
abate the energy of his character, and to render assistance necessary.
The attachment between the young people might be suspected, but was
not formally made known to Paplay and "the lady," as she was called,
according to the courtesy of the olden time. Indeed, such a promulgation
would have been idle; for the "half-reverend" assistant (as Paplay was
wont to address the young probationers of the church) had no immediate