uch to hae learned to haud my tongue. But
we'll turn till a better subjec'. Jist tell me hoo ye made Alec peril's
life for conscience sake. Ye dinna burn fowk here for nae freely
haudin' by the shorter Carritchis, do ye?"

And hereupon followed the story of the flood.

Both these men, notwithstanding the defiance they bore on their
shields, were of the most friendly and communicative disposition. So
soon as they saw that a neighbour was trustworthy, they trusted him.
Hence it is not marvellous that communication should have been mutual.
Cupples told Thomas in return how he had come to know Alec, and what
compact had arisen between them. Thomas, as soon as he understood Mr
Cupples's sacrifice, caught the delicate hand in his granite
grasp--like that with which the steel anvil and the stone block held
Arthur's sword--and said solemnly,

"Ye hae done a great deed, which winna gang wantin' its reward. It
canna hae merit, but it maun be pleesant in His sicht. Ye hae baith
conquered sin i' yersel, and ye hae turned the sinner frae the error o'
his ways."

"Hoots!" interrupted Cupples, "do ye think I was gaun to lat the laddie
gang reid-wud to the deevil, ohn stud in afore 'm and cried _Hooly_!"

After this the two were friends, and met often. Cupples went to the
missionars again and again, and they generally walked away together.

"What gart ye turn frae the kirk o' yer fathers, and tak to a
conventicle like that, Thomas?" asked Mr Cupples one evening.

"Ye hae been to them baith, and I wad hae thocht ye wad hae kent better
nor to speir sic a question," answered Thomas.

"Ay, ay. But what gart ye think o' 't first?"

"Weel, I'll tell ye the haill story. Whan I was a callan, I took the
play to mysel' for a week, or maybe twa, and gaed wi' a frien' i' the
same trade's mysel', to see what was to be seen alang a screed o' the
sea-coast, frae toon to toon. My compaingon wasna that gude at the
traivellin'; and upo' the Setterday nicht, there we war in a
public-hoose, and him no able to gang ae fit further, for sair heels
and taes. Sae we bude to bide still ower the Sawbath, though we wad
fain hae been oot' o' the toon afore the kirk began. But seein' that we
cudna, I thocht it wad be but dacent to gang to the kirk like ither
fowk, and sae I made mysel' as snod as I could, and gaed oot. And afore
I had gane mony yairds, I cam upo' fowk gaein to the kirk. And sae I
loot the stream carry me alang wi' 't, and gaed in and sat