gates; for the very first man that took on with them was one Thomas
Wilson, a cottar in our clachan, who, up to that time, had been a

decent and creditable character. He was at first a farmer lad, but
had forgathered with a doited tawpy, whom he married, and had

offspring three or four. For some time it was noticed that he had a
down and thoughtful look, that his cleeding was growing bare, and

that his wife kept an untrig house, which, it was feared by many,
was the cause of Thomas going o'er often to the change-house; he

was, in short, during the greater part of the winter, evidently a
man foregone in the pleasures of this world, which made all that

knew him compassionate" target="_blank" title="a.有同情心的 vt.同情">compassionate his situation.
No doubt, it was his household ills that burdened him past bearing,

and made him go into Irville, when he heard of the recruiting, and
take on to be a soldier. Such a wally-wallying as the news of this

caused at every door; for the red-coats--from the persecuting days,
when the black-cuffs rampaged through the country--soldiers that

fought for hire were held in dread and as a horror among us, and
terrible were the stories that were told of their cruelty and

sinfulness; indeed, there had not been wanting in our time a sample
of what they were, as witness the murder of Jean Glaikit by Patrick

O'Neil, the Irish corporal, anent which I have treated at large in
the memorables of the year 1774.

A meeting of the session was forthwith held; for here was Thomas
Wilson's wife and all his weans, an awful cess, thrown upon the

parish; and it was settled outright among us, that Mr Docken, who
was then an elder, but is since dead, a worthy man, with a soft

tongue and a pleasing manner, should go to Irville, and get Thomas,
if possible, released from the recruiters. But it was all in vain;

the sergeant would not listen to him, for Thomas was a strapping
lad; nor would the poor infatuated man himself agree to go back, but

cursed like a cadger, and swore that, if he stayed any longer among
his plagues, he would commit some rash act; so we were saddled with

his family, which was the first taste and preeing of what war is
when it comes into our hearths, and among the breadwinners.

The evil, however, did not stop here. Thomas, when he was dressed
out in the king's clothes, came over to see his bairns, and take a

farewell of his friends, and he looked so gallant, that the very
next market-day another lad of the parish listed with him; but he

was a ramplor, roving sort of a creature, and, upon the whole, it
was thought he did well for the parish when he went to serve the

king.
The listing was a catching temper" target="_blank" title="n.犬热病；色粉颜料">distemper. Before the summer was over,

the other three of the farming lads went off with the drum, and
there was a wailing in the parish, which made me preach a touching

discourse. I likened the parish to a widow woman with a small
family, sitting in her cottage by the fireside, herself spinning

with an eident wheel, ettling her best to get them a bit and a brat,
and the poor weans all canty about the hearthstane--the little ones

at their playocks, and the elder at their tasks--the callans working
with hooks and lines to catch them a meal of fish in the morning--

and the lassies working stockings to sell at the next Marymas fair.-
-And then I likened war to a calamity coming among them--the callans

drowned at their fishing--the lassies led to a misdoing--and the
feckless wee bairns laid on the bed of sickness, and their poor

forlorn mother sitting by herself at the embers of a cauldrife fire;
her tow done, and no a bodle to buy more; drooping a silent and salt

tear for her babies, and thinking of days that war gone, and, like
Rachel weeping for her children, she would not be comforted. With

this I concluded, for my own heart filled full with the thought, and
there was a deep sob in the Church; verily it was Rachel weeping for

her children.
In the latter end of the year, the man-of-war, with Charles Malcolm

in her, came to the tail of the Bank at Greenock, to press men as it
was thought, and Charles got leave from his captain to come and see

his mother; and he brought with him Mr Howard, another midshipman,
the son of a great parliament man in London, which, as we have

tasted the sorrow, gave us some insight into the pomp of war,
Charles was now grown up into a fine young man, rattling, light-

hearted, and just a cordial of gladness, and his companion was every
bit like him. They were dressed in their fine gold-laced garbs and

nobody knew Charles when he came to the clachan, but all wondered,
for they were on horseback, and rode to the house where his mother

lived when he went away, but which was then occupied by Miss Sabrina
and her school. Miss Sabrina had never seen Charles, but she had

heard of him; and when he enquired for his mother, she guessed who
he was, and showed him the way to the new house that the captain had

bought for her.
Miss Sabrina, who was a little overly perjink at times, behaved

herself on this occasion with a true spirit, and gave her lassies
the play immediately; so that the news of Charles's return was

spread by them like wildfire, and there was a wonderful joy in the
whole town. When Charles had seen his mother, and his sister Effie,

with that douce and well-mannered lad William, his brother--for of
their meeting I cannot speak, not being present--he then came with

his friend to see me at the manse, and was most jocose with me, and,
in a way of great pleasance, got Mrs Balwhidder to ask his friend to

sleep at the manse. In short, we had just a ploy the whole two days
they stayed with us, and I got leave from Lord Eaglesham's steward

to let them shoot on my lord's land; and I believe every laddie wean
in the parish attended them to the field. As for old Lady Macadam,

Charles being, as she said, a near relation, and she having likewise
some knowledge of his comrade's family, she was just in her element

with them, though they were but youths; for she a woman naturally of
a fantastical, and, as I have narrated, given to comical devices,

and pranks to a degree. She made for them a ball, to which she
invited all the bonniest lassies, far and near, in the parish, and

was out of the body with mirth, and had a fiddler from Irville; and
it was thought by those that were there, that had she not been

crippled with the rheumatics, she would have danced herself. But I
was concerned to hear both Charles and his friend, like hungry

hawks, rejoicing at the prospect of the war, hoping thereby, as soon
as their midship term was out, to be made lieutenants; saving this,

there was no allay in the happiness they brought with them to the
parish, and it was a delight to see how auld and young of all

degrees made of Charles; for we were proud of him, and none more
than myself, though he began to take liberties with me, calling me

old governor; it was, however, in a warm-hearted manner, only I did
not like it when any of the elders heard. As for his mother, she

deported herself like a saint on the occasion. There was a
temperance in the pleasure of her heart, and in her thankfulness,

that is past the compass of words to describe. Even Lady Macadam,
who never could think a serious thought all her days, said, in her

wild way that the gods had bestowed more care in the making of Mrs
Malcolm's temper, than on the bodies and souls of all the saints in

the calendar. On the Sunday the strangers attended divine worship,
and I preached a sermon purposely for them, and enlarged at great

length and fulness on how David overcame Goliath; and they both told
me that they had never heard such a good discourse; but I do not

think they were great judges of preachings. How, indeed, could Mr
Howard know anything of sound doctrine, being educated, as he told

me, at Eton school, a prelatic establishment! Nevertheless, he was
a fine lad; and though a little given to frolic and diversion, he

had a principle of integrity, that afterwards kythed into much
virtue; for, during this visit, he took a notion of Effie Malcolm,

and the lassie of him, then a sprightly and blooming creature, fair
to look upon, and blithe to see; and he kept up a correspondence

with her till the war was over, when being a captain of a frigate,
he came down among us, and they were married by me, as shall be

related in its proper place.