Fast Day breakers into the ways of
rectitude. In the small ill-kept square the invaders, to the number of
about a hundred, were wedged together at its upper end, while the
Thrums people formed in a thick line at the foot. For its inhabitants
the way to Tilliedrum lay through this threatening mass of armed
weavers. No words were bandied between the two forces; the centre of
the square was left open, and nearly every eye was fixed on the
town-house clock. It directed operations and gave the signal to
charge. The moment six o'clock struck, the upper mass broke its bonds
and flung itself on the living barricade. There was a clatter of heads
and sticks, a yelling and a groaning, and then the invaders, bursting
through the opposing ranks, fled for Tilliedrum. Down the Tanage brae
and up the Braehead they skurried, half a hundred avenging spirits in
pursuit. On the Tilliedrum Fast Day I have tasted blood myself. In
the godless place there is no Auld Licht kirk, but there are two Auld
Lichts in it now who walk to Thrums to church every Sabbath, blow or
rain as it lists. They are making their influence felt in Tilliedrum.

The Auld Lichts also did valorous deeds at the Battle of Cabbylatch.
The farm land so named lies a mile or more to the south of Thrums. You
have to go over the rim of the cup to reach it. It is low-lying and
uninteresting to the eye, except for some giant stones scattered cold
and naked through the fields. No human hands reared these boulders,
but they might be looked upon as tombstones to the heroes who fell (to
rise hurriedly) on the plain of Cabbylatch.

The fight of Cabbylatch belongs to the days of what are now but dimly
remembered as the Meal Mobs. Then there was a wild cry all over the
country for bread (not the fine loaves that we know, but something very
much coarser), and hungry men and women, prematurely shrunken, began to
forget the taste of meal. Potatoes were their chief sustenance, and,
when the crop failed, starvation gripped them. At that time the
farmers, having control of the meal, had the small towns at their
mercy, and they increased its cost. The price of the meal went up and
up, until the famishing people swarmed up the sides of the carts in
which it was conveyed to the towns, and, tearing open the sacks,
devoured it in handfuls. In Thrums they had a stern sense of justice,
and for a time, after taking possession of the meal, they carried it to
the square and sold it a