Page:History of Jock Haxton.pdf/9



9 rascal profanely expressed it--almost every minister in the bounds with the same ef fect. In some cases, however, it was be- yond his power; and he would himself re- mark, that it was only when he could catch the manner that he could recite the dis- course, In all save the voice, and that at the period of which I speak was too soft, no one, who did not see him, could have hesitated to assert that he was actually the minister, Many of his pranks about the manse I have heard related in my early days, by persons who knew him. Of most of these I have but a faint recollection, but the fol- lowing, from its singularity, has not yet es- caped me. One Saturday afternoon Jock had occupied his usual station in the min- nister's peat neuk--usual station, but usual, be it remembered, only on the Saturdays. On almost every other day he knew it was unsafe to approach the manse at all. On Saturday, however, his spiritual enemy was at rest, and he felt himself, as he often boasted, always at home among boys and lasses. The kitchen-woman was baking bread, and the boys, whose appetite, as she observed, had that day got the better of their expense, were teazing her for pieces. "Tak, example," said she" by Jock there; see if