uses--till the delighted congregation could have risen in a body and
taken Saunderson by the hand for his fearlessness and faithfulness.
Perhaps the extent and thoroughness of this monumental sermon can be
best estimated by the fact that Claypots, father of the present tenant,
who always timed his rest to fifty minutes exactly, thus overseeing
both the introduction and application of the sermon, had a double
portion, and even a series of supplementary dozes, till at last he sat
upright through sheer satiety. It may also be offered as evidence that
the reserve of peppermint held by mothers for their bairns was pooled,
doles being furtively passed across pews to conspicuously needy
families, and yet the last had gone before Saunderson finished.

Mains reported to the congregational meeting that the minister had been
quiet for the rest of the day, but had offered to say something about
Habakkuk to any evening gathering, and had cleared up at family worship
some obscure points in the morning discourse. He also informed the
neighbours that he had driven his guest all the way to Muirtown, and
put him in an Edinburgh carriage with his own hands, since it had
emerged that Saunderson, through absence of mind, had made his down
journey by the triangular route of Dundee. It was quite impossible for
Kilbogie to conceal their pride in electing such a miracle of learning,
and their bearing in Muirtown was distinctly changed; but indeed they
did not boast vainly about Jeremiah Saunderson, for his career was
throughout on the level of that monumental sermon. When the Presbytery
in the gaiety of their heart examined Saunderson to ascertain whether
he was fully equipped for the work of the ministry, he professed the
whole Old Testament in Hebrew, and MacWheep of Pitscowrie, who always
asked the candidate to read the twenty-third Psalm, was beguiled by
Jeremiah into the Book of Job, and reduced to the necessity of asking
questions by indicating verbs with his finger. His Greek examination
led to an argument between Jeremiah and Dr. Dowbiggin on the use of the
aorist, from which the minister-elect of Kilbogie came out an easy
first; and his sermons were heard to within measurable distance of the
second head by an exact quorum of the exhausted court, who were kept by
the clerk sitting at the door, and preventing MacWheep escaping. His
position in the court was assured from the beginning, and fulfilled the
function of an Encyclopaedia w