an' place for a God-fearin' woman.
Howsoever, it was the laird himsel' that had first tauld the minister o'
Janet; an' in thae days he wad hae gane a far gate to pleesure the
laird. When folk tauld him that Janet was sib to the de'il, it was a'
superstition by his way o' it; an' when they cast up the Bible to him
an' the witch o' Endor, he wad threep it doun their thrapples that thir
days were a' gane by, an' the de'il was mercifully restrained.

Weel, when it got about the clachan that Janet M'Clour was to be servant
at the manse, the folk were fair mad wi' her an' him thegither; an' some
o' the guid wives had nae better to dae than get round her door-cheeks
and chairge her wi' a' that was ken't again' her, frae the sodger's
bairn to John Tamson's twa kye. She was nae great speaker; folk usually
let her gang her ain gate, an' she let them gang theirs, wi' neither
Fair-guid-een nor Fair-guid-day: but when she buckled to, she had a
tongue to deave the miller. Up she got, an' there wasna an auld story in
Ba'weary but she gart somebody lowp for it that day; they couldna say ae
thing but she could say twa to it; till, at the hinder end, the
guidwives up and claught hand o' her, an' clawed the coats aff her back,
an' pu'd her doun the clachan to the water o' Dule, to see if she were a
witch or no, soom or droun. The carline skirled till ye could hear her
at the Hangin' Shaw, an' she focht like ten; there was mony a guidwife
bure the mark o' her neist day an' mony a lang day after; an' just in
the hottest o' the collieshangie, wha suld come up (for his sins) but
the new minister.

"Women," said he (and he had a grand voice), "I charge you in the Lord's
name to let her go."

Janet ran to him--she was fair wud wi' terror--an' clang to him, an'
prayed him, for Christ's sake, save her frae the cummers; an' they, for
their pairt, tauld him a' that was ken't, an' maybe mair.

"Woman," says he to Janet, "is this true?"

"As the Lord sees me," says she, "as the Lord made me, no a word o't.
Forbye the bairn," says she, "I've been a decent woman a' my days."

"Will you," says Mr. Soulis, "in the name of God, and before me, His
unworthy minister, renounce the devil and his works?"

Weel, it wad appear that when he askit that, she gave a girn that fairly
frichtit them that saw her, an' they could hear her teeth play dirl
thegither in her chafts; but there was naething for't but the ae way or
the ither; an' Janet lifted up her hand