terruption. "Laird," he
said excitedly, "it is like a fresh Epiphany, what this young Mr.
Selwyn says--the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the prisoners
comforted, the puir wee, ragged, ignorant bairns gathered into homes
and schools, and it is the gospel wi' bread and meat and shelter and
schooling in its hand. That was Christ's ain way, you'll admit that.
And while he was talking, my heart burned, and I bethought me of a
night-school for the little herd laddies and lasses. They could study
their lessons on the hillside all day, and I'll gather them for an
hour at night, and gie them a basin o' porridge and milk after their
lessons. And we ought not to send the orphan weans o' the kirk to the
warkhouse; we ought to hae a hame for them, and our sick ought to be
better looked to. There is many another good thing to do, but we'll
begin wi' these, and the rest will follow."

The laird had listened thus far in speechless indignation. He now
stood still, and said,

"I'll hae you to understand, Dominie Tallisker, that I am laird o'
Crawford and Traquare, and I'll hae nae such pliskies played in either
o' my clachans."

"If you are laird, I am dominie. You ken me weel enough to be sure if
this thing is a matter o' conscience to me, neither king nor kaiser
can stop me. I'd snap my fingers in King George's face if he bid me
'stay,' when my conscience said 'go,'" and the dominie accompanied the
threat with that sharp, resonant fillip of the fingers that is a
Scotchman's natural expression of intense excitement of any kind.

"King George!" cried the laird, in an ungovernable temper, "there is
the whole trouble. If we had only a Charles Stuart on the throne there
would be nane o' this Whiggery."

"There would be in its place masses, and popish priests, and a few
private torture-chambers, and whiles a Presbyterian heretic or twa
burned at the Grass-market. Whiggery is a grand thing when it keeps
the Scarlet Woman on her ain seven hills. Scotland's hills and braes
can do weel, weel without her."

This speech gave the laird time to think. It would never do to quarrel
with Tallisker. If he should set himself positively against his scheme
of sending his clan to Canada it would be almost a hopeless one; and
then he loved and respected his friend. His tall, powerful frame and
his dark, handsome face, all aglow with a passionate conviction of
right, and an invincible determination to do it, commanded his
thorough admiration. He