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78 to have the front gallery facing the minister, rather than MacCrosskie of Creochstone, the son of deacon MacCrosskie the Dumfries weaver?"

Mannering expressed his acquiescence in the justice of those various complaints.

"And then, Mr Mannering, there was the story about the road, and the fauld dike—I ken Sir Thomas was behind there, and I said plainly to the clerk to the trustees that I saw the cloven foot, let them take that as they like—would any gentleman, or set of gentlemen, go and drive a load right through the corner of a fauld-dike, and take away, as my agent observed to them, like two roods of good moorland pasture?—And there was the story about chasing the collector of the cess"—

"Certainly, sir, it is hard you should meet with any neglect in a country, where, to judge from the extent of their residence, your ancestors must have made a very important figure."

"Very true, Mr Mannering—I am a