"Sir?" said the old man inquiringly, slightly lifting his hat, and not exactly comprehending his companion.
"Losh, but he's a mannerly auld body that," thought the other; "I see the siller upon this suit o' claes has been weel-wared;" and added aloud, "I was observing it's a delightful morning, sir, and as delightful a country-side; it wad be a paradise, were it no sae flat."
"Ah, sir!" replied the old man; "but I fear as how the country looks like a paradise without its innocence."
"Ye talk very rationally, honest man," said the other, whom the reader will have recognised to be Willie Galloway; "and, if I am no mistaen, ye maun hae some cause to mak the remark. But, dear me, sir, only look round ye, and see the trees in a' their glory, the flowers in a' their innocence; or just look at the rowing burn there, wimplin alang by oor side, like refined silver, beneath a sun only less glorious than the Hand that made it; and see hoo the bits o' fish are whittering round, wagging their tails, and whisking back and forrit, as happy as kings! Look at the lovely and the cheerfu' face o' a' Nature—or just listen to the music o' thae sinless creatures in the hedges, and in the blue lift—and ye will say that, but for the inventions and deceitfulness o' man's heart, this earth wad be a paradise still. But I tell ye what, freend—I believe that were an irreligious man just to get up before sunrise at a season like this, and gang into the fields and listen to the laverock, and look around on the earth, and on the majesty o' the heavens rising, he wadna stand for half-an-hoor until, if naebody were seeing him, he would drap doun on his knees and pray."
Much of Willie's sermon was lost on the old man; he, however, comprehended a part, and said, "Why, sir, I know as how I always find my mind more in tune for the service of the church, by a walk in the fields, and the singing of the birds, than by all the instruments of the orchestra."
"Orchestra!" said Willie, "what do ye mean?—that's a strange place to gather devotion frae!"
"The orchestra of the church," returned the other.
"The orchestra o' the church!" said Willie, in surprise—"what's that? I never heard o't before. There's the poopit, and the precentor's desk, the pews and the square seats, and doun stairs and the gallery—but ye nonplus me about the orchestra."
"Why, our lord of the manor," continued the old man, "is one who cares for nothing that's good, and he will give nothing; and as we are not rich enough to buy an organ, we have only a bass viol, two tenors, and a flute."
"Fiddles and a flute in a place o' worship!" exclaimed Willie.