“Eh, he was grand the day!” said an old lady on her return from church.
“In what respect?” inquired her lord and master.
“Just terrible deep,” said she. “I didna understand a word o’t; but, eh! it was grand!”
“What makes you laugh, James?” inquired a country minister of his beadle one Sabbath in the Session-house between the preachings, as the humbler functionary stirred up the fire and “hottered and leuch,” in a semi-suppressed manner. “It is unseemly, James. What is there to amuse you?”
The minister, it should be explained, had a reputation for giving his people what is well understood when described as “cauld kail het again.”
“Eh, naething particular,” said Jamie, still laughing. “I was only thinkin’ o’ something that happened when the kirk was skailin’ a maument syne.”
“What was it? Tell me about it.”
“Weel, minister, dinna be angry wi’ me,” said Jamie, “an’ I’ll tell ye. Whether ye ken it or no, sir, ye’re blamed for preachin’ an auld sermon noo an’ than, an’ I think I rather got the better o’ some o’ them the day—some o’ the kirk-fouk, I mean.”
“How so, James?”