'But you have told us nothing at all,' said the Laird, 'except that your Auntie Lillie has skill with the "Jandies," and it was not that we assembled to hear about, though it is a far more useful thing to know than the other stuff. I think we had better go home!'

'Patience! brethren,' said the chairman, 'let us cultivate a calm and judicious frame of mind. What was it, Andrew, that your aunt told you about the minister?'

'Hear-say evidence!' interjected the Laird.

'Not at all! It is not evidence in the legal sense we are after at present, simply a beginning of some kind,--an allegation, a statement to be afterwards sifted. Now, Andrew Semple, what was it your aunt told you about Mr. Brown?'

'Aweel, sir, she telled me o' the bairn 'at auld Eppie Ness was takin' tent on; an' I says, ne'er misdoubtin' wrang, ye ken, says I, "It's juist like him; it's him 'at's aye doin' gude." An' Auntie Lillie she just leugh, an' gae a kin' o' glint o' the e'e, an' syne she gae the ither nicker, an' says she, "Andra," she says, "Semple's yer name, an' simple's yer natur! It's his ain bairn, bless ye!--the pawkie young sneckdrawer 'at we a' thocht was sae blate an' sae douce. I canna but laugh whiles, to think sic fules as he has made o' us, for a' it's sae wrang." "But it's no true," says I. "That's just the fash o't," quo' she; "it's ower true! There's no a wife e'y hale glen 'at disna ken a' about it."'

'You affirm, then, that it is commonly reported, Andrew,' said the chairman, 'that the infant adopted by Mr. Brown is his own child? Here is an allegation which the ecclesiastical authorities cannot possibly let pass unsifted. On what authority is the assertion made?'

'Just a' body tells the same tale. An' I hae telled ye a' 'at I ken, an' that's naething!'

The ice being broken, every one was now willing to contribute a surmise or a circumstance, till in the end they had worked up the narrative to the full strength at which it was circulating out of doors.

'And now,' said the chairman, 'we have the accusation before us; and yet, strange to say, there is no accuser. We have here a public scandal, a case which would give the enemy ground to blaspheme. We must do our duty to the Church by taking steps for the removal of its withered branch. Now, who will undertake the Christian duty of libelling Mr. Brown before the Presbytery? Will the Session do it? or will the members of Session do it? It is a thing that must be done! You are all guilty of connivance, and are in fact accessories to the sin. Will the Session undertake to present the libel?'

'I won't for one,' said the Laird. 'I believe it to be all idle tattle. You have not a thread of evidence to support your libel, whatever.'