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Stepping across to the clergyman, Bruce respectfully placed his hand on his shoulder, and as he spoke his clear blue eyes smiled at the still kneeling women. "Cheer up, sir. God will protect ye and your gude wife, and us all. You, his meenister, have made supplication to Him, and He has heard. Dinna weep, ladies. We are in the care of One who holds the sea in the hollow of His hand."
While on my way to Dumfries I stopped overnight at Gretna Green, which, as all fair maidens know, is in Scotland just over the border from England. To my delight I found that the coming of runaway couples to Gretna Green was not entirely a matter of the past, for the very evening I arrived a blushing pair came to the inn and inquired for a "meenister."
'Ye'll ken my sister? replied Ringan, gazing fixedly at the fire, 'Effie that was marrit on puir Jock Ord a fine laddie he was verra knowledgeable wi' sheep, wha perished in a snowstorm, mindin' his hirsel. 'She was left gey ill aff, an' noo wi' a bairn to provide for, hard pit till 't. Twa hundred punds wull provide for his upbringin', an' aiblins turn him into a meenister at the finish.
Och, for a meenister wi' the grace of God in his heart an' a hunger for souls! We hae fallen upon ill times, Duncan!" Duncan Polite roused himself with an effort. "They will not be so bad but the Father can mend them, Andra, an' indeed it will not be like the times when your father an' mine would be praying here for the Glen." "Ah dinna ken that," replied old Andrew morosely.
Old Dougal turned his thumb toward a bench and bade them be seated. "It's a bit war-rm," MacDonald opined, by way of opening the conversation. "What else wad it be this time o' year?" Dougal rumbled. "Tell us somethin' we dinna ken. Wha's yon cam' wi' ye?" "Man, but the heat makes ye crabbed," MacDonald returned with naïve candor. "Yon's a meenister." "Bagosh, yes," Breyette chuckled.
"And whut said our meenister to thot?" inquired Christie. Jane Duncannon flashed her a twinkle of appreciation: "He just clapped the senior elder in the chair as neat as a pin in a pincushion an' moved an expression of confidence, utmost confidence was the word !" "Mmmmmmmm! I thot as much!" commented Christie, "The blessed mon!"
E? He's my ain meenister." Susanna kens her Bible weel, but she's never gaed forrit." "Dr. F? I ca' him the greetin' doctor! He's aye dingin' the dust oot o' the poopit cushions, an' greetin' ower the sins o' the human race, an' eespecially o' his ain congregation. He's waur sin his last wife sickened an' slippit awa'. 'Twas a chastenin' he'd put up wi' twice afore, but he grat nane the less.
I glanced narrowly at the swift-passing stranger, and beneath the smouldering 'bowet' I had borrowed from the 'Meenister' I recognised with a start the slight, shrunken figure of 'Brownie' with his white, pathetic face. It was the swiftest of visions, yet I had seen enough to give me a 'gliff, for the eyes were not those of 'Brownie, but of my uncle.
He called at the Free Kirk manse, the meenister was no' at hame; then to the library, it was closed; then to the Estaiblished manse, the meenister was awa'. At last he obtained a glance at the schoolmaster's dictionary, and turning to 'reproduce' found that it meant 'nought but mak' ower again'; and with an amused smile at the bedevilments of language he turned once more to his loom and I to my canvas.
The doctor saw the impression he had made upon me, and he said "To-morrow we will show you more; you shall meet the ragged man " "Which is mysel'," said the Scotsman, who had joined us silently, "mysel' that has'na a dud to my back. D'ye ken that when there's ony distribution o' the gudes I get a' the female apparel; which is no justice ava for a meenister, let alone a sea-faring man."
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