“A'm rael pleased tae hear sic soond views, Mister—”
“Soutar is ma name—Jamie maist commonly.”
“Soutar,” and Milton might be excused falling into the snare, “ye ken the difference atween a show o' warks an' the root o' the maitter. A' wes astonished at yir elder; when a' pointed oot the defects in the sermon, he said, 'Gin we dae a' the doctor telt us, we 'ill no be far wrang;' ye micht as weel be a heathen.'
“Drumsheugh is nae standard,” Jamie explained; “he's sae begottit (taken up) wi' the commandments that a'm feared o' him. He's clever at a bargain, but gin he thocht he hed cheatit onybody, Drumsheugh wudna sleep; it 's clean legalism.
“Ye micht try the Free Kirk, Milton; they 've a new man, an' he 's warmer than the doctor; he 's fund oot anither Isaiah, an' he's sae learned that he 'ill maybe hae twa Robbie Burns' yet; but that 's naither here nor there; he's young an' fu' o' speerit; gie him a trial,” Jamie discovered with much interest that Milton had been examining the Free Church, and had expressed his strong dissatisfaction, some said because of grossly erroneous doctrine, others because Carmichael had refused to allow him to preach. Doctrine was the ground he alleged to Jamie, who looked in to see how he had got settled and what he thought of things.
“A' peety this Glen,” he said, with solemnity; “ae place it 's cauld morality, an' the ither it's fause teaching. Div ye ken what a' heard wi' ma ain ears laist Sabbath frae Maister Carmichael?”
Jamie was understood to declare his conviction that a man who was not satisfied with one Isaiah might be capable of anything.
“Ye ken verra weel,” for Milton believed Jamie a kindred spirit at this stage, “that we 're a' here on probation, and that few are chosen, juist a handfu' here and there; no on accoont o' ony excellence in oorsels, so we maunna boast.”
“Verra comfortin' for the handfu',” murmured Jamie, his eyes fixed on the roof.
“Weel, gin yon young man didna declare in sae mony words that we were a' God's bairns, an' that He wes gaein' tae dae the best He cud wi' every ane o's. What think ye o' that?—nae difference atween the elect an' the ithers, nae preeveleges nor advantages; it's against baith scriptur an' reason.”