of Mrs. Dods, who was pouring
out his tea for breakfast, into a large cup of a very particular species
of china, of which he had presented her with a service on condition of
her rendering him this personal good office,--"Pray, Mrs. Dods, what
sort of a man is your minister?"

"He's just a man like other men, Maister Touchwood," replied Meg; "what
sort of a man should he be?"

"A man like other men?--ay--that is to say, he has the usual complement
of legs and arms, eyes and ears--But is he a sensible man?"

"No muckle o' that, sir," answered Dame Dods; "for if he was drinking
this very tea that ye gat doun from London wi' the mail, he wad mistake
it for common bohea."

"Then he has not all his organs--wants a nose, or the use of one at
least," said Mr. Touchwood; "the tea is right gunpowder--a perfect
nosegay."

"Aweel, that may be," said the landlady; "but I have gi'en the minister
a dram frae my ain best bottle of real Coniac brandy, and may I never
stir frae the bit, if he didna commend my whisky when he set down the
glass! There is no ane o' them in the Presbytery but himsell--ay, or in
the Synod either--but wad hae kend whisky frae brandy."

"But what _sort_ of man is he?--Has he learning?" demanded Touchwood.

"Learning?--eneugh o' that," answered Meg; "just dung donnart wi'
learning--lets a' things about the Manse gang whilk gate they will, sae
they dinna plague him upon the score. An awfu' thing it is to see sic an
ill-red-up house!--If I had the twa tawpies that sorn upon the honest
man ae week under my drilling, I think I wad show them how to sort a
lodging!"

"Does he preach well?" asked the guest.

"Oh, weel eneugh, weel eneugh--sometimes he will fling in a lang word or
a bit of learning that our farmers and bannet lairds canna sae weel
follow--But what of that, as I am aye telling them?--them that pay
stipend get aye the mair for their siller."

"Does he attend to his parish?--Is he kind to the poor?"

"Ower muckle o' that, Maister Touchwood--I am sure he makes the Word
gude, and turns not away from those that ask o' him--his very pocket is
picked by a wheen ne'er-do-weel blackguards, that gae sorning through
the country."

"Sorning through the country, Mrs. Dods?--what would you think if you
had seen the Fakirs, the Dervises, the Bonzes, the Imaums, the monks,
and the mendicants, that I have seen?--But go on, never mind--Does this
minister of yours come much into company?"

"Company?--gae