Sabrina, over and above the incomings and Candlemas offerings of
school; insomuch that she saved money, and in the course of three

years had ten pounds to put in the bank.
At the time, these alterations and revolutions in the parish were

thought a great advantage; but now when I look back upon them, as a
traveller on the hill over the road he has passed, I have my doubts.

For with wealth come wants, like a troop of clamorous beggars at the
heels of a generous man; and it's hard to tell wherein the benefit

of improvement in a country parish consists, especially to those who
live by the sweat of their brow. But it is not for me to make

reflections; my task and duty is to note the changes of time and
habitudes.

CHAPTER X YEAR 1769
I have my doubts whether it was in the beginning of this year, or in

the end of the last, that a very extraordinary thing came to light
in the parish; but, howsoever that may be, there is nothing more

certain than the fact, which it is my duty to record. I have
mentioned already how it was that the toll, or trust-road, was set

a-going, on account of the Lord Eaglesham's tumbling on the midden
in the Vennel. Well, it happened to one of the labouring men, in

breaking the stones to make metal for the new road, that he broke a
stone that was both large and remarkable, and in the heart of it,

which was boss, there was found a living creature, that jumped out
the moment it saw the light of heaven, to the great terrification of

the man, who could think it was nothing but an evil spirit that had
been imprisoned therein for a time. The man came to me like a

demented creature, and the whole clachan gathered out, young and
old, and I went at their head to see what the miracle could be, for

the man said it was a fiery dragon, spewing smoke and flames. But
when we came to the spot, it was just a yird toad, and the laddie

weans nevelled it to death with stones, before I could persuade them
to give over. Since then, I have read of such things coming to

light in the Scots Magazine, a very valuable book.
Soon after the affair of "the wee deil in the stane," as it was

called, a sough reached us that the Americas were seized with the
rebellious spirit of the ten tribes, and were snapping their fingers

in the face of the king's government. The news came on a Saturday
night, for we had no newspapers in those days, and was brought by

Robin Modiwort, that fetched the letters from the Irville post.
Thomas Fullarton (he has been dead many a day) kept the grocery shop

at Irville, and he had been in at Glasgow, as was his yearly custom,
to settle his accounts, and to buy a hogshead of tobacco, with sugar

and other spiceries; and being in Glasgow, Thomas was told by the
merchant of a great rise in tobacco, that had happened by reason of

the contumacity of the plantations, and it was thought that blood
would be spilt before things were ended, for that the King and

Parliament were in a great passion with them. But as Charles
Malcolm, in the king's ship, was the only one belonging to the

parish that was likely to be art and part in the business, we were
in a manner little troubled at the time with this first gasp of the

monster of war, who, for our sins, was ordained to swallow up and
devour so many of our fellow-subjects, before he was bound again in

the chains of mercy and peace.
I had, in the meantime, written a letter to the Lord Eaglesham, to

get Charles Malcolm out of the clutches of the pressgang in the man-
of-war; and about a month after, his lordship sent me an answer,

wherein was enclosed a letter from the captain of the ship, saying,
that Charles Malcolm was so good a man that he was reluctant to part

with him, and that Charles himself was well contented to remain
aboard. Anent which, his lordship said to me, that he had written

back to the captain to make a midshipman of Charles, and that he
would take him under his own protection, which was great joy on two

accounts to us all, especially to his mother; first, to hear that
Charles was a good man, although in years still but a youth; and,

secondly, that my lord had, of his own free-will, taken him under
the wing of his patronage.

But the sweet of this world is never to be enjoyed without some of
the sour. The coal bark between Irville and Belfast, in which

Robert Malcolm, the second son of his mother, was serving his time
to be a sailor, got a charter, as it was called, to go with to

Norway for deals, which grieved Mrs Malcolm to the very heart; for
there was then no short cut by the canal, as now is, between the

rivers of the Forth and Clyde, but every ship was obligated to go
far away round by the Orkneys, which, although a voyage in the

summer not overly dangerous, there being long days and short nights
then, yet in the winter it was far otherwise, many vessels being

frozen up in the Baltic till the spring; and there was a story told
at the time, of an Irville bark coming home in the dead of the year,

that lost her way altogether, and was supposed to have sailed north
into utter darkness, for she was never more heard of: and many an

awful thing was said of what the auld mariners about the shore
thought concerning the crew of that misfortunate vessel. However,

Mrs Malcolm was a woman of great faith, and having placed her
reliance on Him who is the orphan's stay and widow's trust, she

resigned her bairn into his hands, with a religious submission to
his pleasure, though the mother's tear of weak human nature was on

her cheek and in her e'e. And her faith was well rewarded, for the
vessel brought him safe home, and he had seen such a world of

things, that it was just to read a story-book to hear him tell of
Elsineur and Gottenburg, and other fine and great places that we had

never heard of till that time; and he brought me a bottle of Riga
balsam, which for healing cuts was just miraculous, besides a clear

bottle of Rososolus for his mother, a spirit which for cordiality
could not be told; for though since that time we have had many a

sort of Dantzic cordial, I have never tasted any to compare with
Robin Malcolm's Rososolus. The Lady Macadam, who had a knowledge of

such things, declared it was the best of the best sort; for Mrs
Malcolm sent her ladyship some of it in a doctor's bottle, as well

as to Mrs Balwhidder, who was then at the downlying with our
daughter Janet--a woman now in the married state, that makes a most

excellent wife, having been brought up with great pains, and well
educated, as I shall have to record by-and-by.

About the Christmas of this year, Lady Macadam's son having been
perfected in the art of war at a school in France, had, with the

help of his mother's friends, and his father's fame, got a stand of
colours in the Royal Scots regiment; he came to show himself in his

regimentals to his lady mother, like a dutiful son, as he certainly
was. It happened that he was in the kirk in his scarlets and gold,

on the same Sunday that Robert Malcolm came home from the long
voyage to Norway for deals; and I thought when I saw the soldier and

the sailor from the pulpit, that it was an omen of war, among our
harmless country folks, like swords and cannonamidst ploughs and

sickles, coming upon us; and I became laden in spirit, and had a
most weighty prayer upon the occasion, which was long after

remembered, many thinking, when the American war broke out, that I
had been gifted with a glimmering of prophecy on that day.

It was during this visit to his lady mother, that young Laird
Macadam settled the correspondence with Kate Malcolm, which, in the

process of time, caused us all so much trouble; for it was a
clandestine concern: but the time is not yet ripe for me to speak

of it more at large. I should, however, mention, before concluding
this annal, that Mrs Malcolm herself was this winter brought to

death's door by a terrible host that came on her in the kirk, by
taking a kittling in her throat. It was a terrification to hear her

sometimes; but she got the better of it in the spring, and was more
herself thereafter than she had been for years before; and her

daughter Effie or Euphemia, as she was called by Miss Sabrina, the
schoolmistress, was growing up to be a gleg and clever quean; she

was, indeed, such a spirit in her way, that the folks called her
Spunkie; while her son William, that was the youngest of the five,

was making a wonderful proficiency with Mr Lorimore. He was indeed