Page:Loss of the pack.pdf/7

7 SEQUEL.

The hin’most prayer and grace weel said,

He left the kirk and hameward gaed,

To tak a chack and drap, and tune

His heart for labour afternoon.

His wife that morn stay’d in wi’ leave,

So kendna o’ the auld sark sleeve.

But now they, arm in arm proceeded,

'Mang wheens o' dandering bodies heeded,

Wha cracked o' faith, election, grace,

And scraped and bowed as they did pass:

Some smirked at Mess John's queer behave,

But nane spak o' the auld sark sleeve.

Again within the rostrum seated,—

The prayer re-coned, the psalm re-bleated—

He read his text:—"Wash me, and so

I shall be whiter than the snow."

Still clutching in his waully neive

The snuffy duddy auld sark sleeve.

He preached o' sprinkling and o' pouring,

0' dipping, scrubbing, and o' scouring,

And aye the rag, in illustration,

He shewed as needing great purgation:

But whan his nose he wad relieve,

His thumbs gaed through the auld sark sleeve

'Twas then laid doon whar ’twas before,

But by mischance 'twas soon ca'ed o‘er.

Meantime the sage precentor keepit