e had named
his boat. But, using the same ports as the smugglers, he was often
brought into close relations with them. They asked him for information
which was freely given, as from one friend to another. They trusted him,
for though often interrogated by the supervisor and riding officers,
Israel could develop upon occasion an extraordinary deafness, so that
the questions to which he could give a clear answer were never such as
to commit any one. In exchange for this the smugglers would go aboard
the Tabernacle and allow Israel to preach to them. And woe betide the
irreverent on these occasions! Black Rob o' Garlies or Roaring Imrie
from Douglas-ha' thought nothing of taking such a one by convenient
parts of his clothing and dropping him overboard.

"Aye," said Boyd, encouraged by my grandfather's request, "Israel
Kinmont has made a new man of many a hardened sinner!"

"I dare you to say so," cried my grandmother; "only the Lord that is on
High can do that."

"But He can make use of instruments," argued Boyd, who had learned his
lesson, "and Israel Kinmont is one of them. He has showed me where to
get grace."

"Maybe," snapped Jen, that unswerving Calvinist, "seeing is believing.
Boyd Connoway _may_ have got grace. I put no limit to the Almighty's
power. But it takes more than grace to convert a man from laziness!"

Boyd lifted his hand with a gesture so dignified that even from the
good-for-nothing it commanded respect.

"'Tis from the Lord, Miss Jen, and it behoves us poor mortals noways to
resist. Israel Kinmont never would smuggle, as ye know, and yet he never
had any luck till the highest tide of the year brought the 'Old
Tabernacle' up, with a cargo of sea-coal in her, half-way between
Killantringan Village and the Nitwood.

"'She's settling, Israel,' said his son Jacob, that's counted soft, but
can raise the tune at meeting--none like him for that.

"'Even so,' said Israel, 'the will of the Lord be done!'

"'She's settling fast! Both my feet are wet!' said Jacob, holding on to
a rope.

"'Amen!' cried Israel, 'if it only were His will that she should come
ten yards higher up, she would be on the very roadside. Then I would
open a door into the hold of her after the coal is out, and you and I,
Jacob, could rig up seats and windows like a proper Tabernacle--fit for
Mr. Whitefield himself to preach in! Truly the service of the Lord is
joyful. His law doth rejoice the heart.'

"So said Israel, and, just