able, that he could not proceed in examination, and
that the youth must wait and learn more; so he went away. On returning
home he met a friend on his way to the manse, and on learning that he
too was going to the minister for examination, shrewdly asked him,
"Weel, what will ye say noo if the minister speers hoo mony commandments
there are?" "Say! why, I shall say ten to be sure." To which the other
rejoined, with great triumph, "Ten! Try ye him wi' ten! I tried him wi'
a hunner, and he wasna satisfeed." Another answer from a little girl was
shrewd and reflective. The question was, "Why did the Israelites make a
golden calf?" "They hadna as muckle siller as wad mak a coo."

A kind correspondent has sent me, from personal knowledge, an admirable
pendant to stones of Scottish child acuteness and shrewd observation. A
young lady friend of his, resident in a part of Ayrshire rather remote
from any very satisfactory administration of the gospel, is in the habit
of collecting the children of the neighbourhood on Sundays at the "big
hoose," for religious instruction. On one occasion the class had
repeated the paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer, which contains
these lines--

"Give us this day our daily bread,
And raiment _fit_ provide."

There being no question as to what "daily bread" was, the teacher
proceeded to ask: "What do you understand by 'raiment fit,' or as we
might say, 'fit raiment?'" For a short time the class remained puzzled
at the question; but at last one little girl sung out "stockings and
shune." The child knew that "fit," was Scotch for feet, so her natural
explanation of the phrase was equivalent to "feet raiment," or
"stockings and shune," as she termed it.

On the point of changes in religious feelings there comes within the
scope of these Reminiscences a character in Aberdeenshire, which has now
gone out--I mean the popular and universally well-received Roman
Catholic priest. Although we cannot say that Scotland is a more
PROTESTANT nation than it was in past days, still religious differences,
and strong prejudices, seem at the present time to draw a more decided
line of separation between the priest and his Protestant countrymen. As
examples of what is past, I would refer to the case of a genial Romish
bishop in Ross-shire. It is well known that private stills were
prevalent in the Highlands fifty or sixty years ago, and no one thought
there was any harm in them. This good bishop, whose nam