was at last fairly
brought up by the look and gestures of a couple of men engaged in close
argument.

The one was a person well stricken in years, with fine white hair
straying beneath the broad leaf of his decent beaver hat; he had a keen
small eye, well covered by a pair of thick grey eyebrows; with features
much wrinkled, but full of intelligence: he was slightly humpbacked, and
otherwise bent by the weight of years.

His antagonist was a low, square-built fellow, with a set of blunt
features, quick sparkling little eyes, a ruddy complexion, and a broad
low brow, over which was set, with a somewhat jaunty air, a blue bonnet.
Both were evidently Scotch; the younger disputant, by his high shrill
tone and peculiar pronunciation, a true Celt.

I soon discovered "the Glasgow body" was engaged in giving a lecture to
the sturdy mountaineer upon the absolute folly of seeking to uphold
exclusively the Gaelic tongue: the Highlander, who was head-vestryman in
his parish, having, as it came out, lately advertised for a clergyman
who could officiate in that ancient language. It may readily be supposed
that between such disputants the argument was a warm one.

The Glasgow elder, slow, precise, and very energetic withal, insisted
that the land they stood upon was no strangers' land; that they were not
expected, like the Israelites of old whilst in a condition of bondage,
to hold themselves a people apart; that the English tongue and English
laws were lawfully theirs; and that those were the wisest men and the
best subjects who learned the first in order that they might neither be
ignorant nor forgetful of the last.

The hielan' man admitted, frigidly enough I thought, the present
supremacy of English law and language, but insisted that the
congregation upon their settlement absolutely needed a Gaelic pastor to
preach the word, and no other; for, although all of them understood the
Gaelic, full one half knew no word of English!

"More shame for them!" exclaimed the Glasgow man; "what for don't they
learn it? Puir prejudiced bodies that they are!"

"What for no?" retorted quickly the nettled Highlander: "why, because
they just prefer their ain: and I can't say I wonder at it all; for I
know baith, and must aver, Mr. Dalgleish, that my preference is wholly
for ta Gaelic, which is a finer language, and a petter and older
language, and of a petter and an older nation by far."

"Hoot tout!" coolly responded old Glasgow; "Ye're j