Itia The Elder's Journey. [FEB.; 



while, the .room, as well as the shop, was full. But the assemblage 

 was not characterized by that rude eagerness of curiosity which might 

 have been expected elsewhere : each spoke to his neighbour in whispers, 

 or shook Airs. Dick by the hand in silence. At length, Mrs. McSneeshin, 

 the tobacconist's widow next door (who indeed had been something of a 

 randy wife before she took to godliness), bustling through the crowd, 

 made her way into the room, and producing a thick, round bottle of real 

 noyau, which she had manufactered herself, by tempering the ardent 

 flavour of strong whiskey, although without diminishing its strength, 

 with the juice of blanched and crushed almonds, filled out a bumper, 

 and handed it to the Elder, " to keep the cauld from his stamach." The 

 good man, who could unbend sometimes, did not refuse the proffered 

 civility ; and, his heart opening under the genial influence, he soon after 

 threw out such hints as gave the company to understand all the whys 

 and wherefores of the matter. It cannot be told how proud the Dodrum 

 people were at this instance of spiritual heroism having arisen among 

 themselves ; and a few minutes passed joyfully by, in discussing the sub- 

 ject and Mrs. McSneeshin's bottle of noyau. At length a hurried stir 

 was heard among the outer crowd, which, followed instantaneously by 

 the sound of a trumpet,, gave intimation that the mail was coming ; and 

 Eben, attended by his friends, hurried to the street as fast as his cum- 

 brous clothing permitted. 



But it was mainly impossible to get him to the top of the coach, where 

 he meant to have gone, partly for economy's sake, and partly to be 

 enabled to keep a sharp look-out for the inn of Shotts, being informed 

 that the government vehicles were so overhasty in their wayfaring ope- 

 rations of changing the cattle, et ccetera, as to leave him in some dread of 

 being carried half over the kingdom before he was aware. An awfully 

 heavy man indeed he was, and somewhat slow of locomotion at the best; 

 but, in this instance, being wholly unable to render any assistance him- 

 self, swathed and swaddled in his present fashion, with as many coverings 

 as King Cheops had in his Egyptian tomb, it was altogether out of the 

 question to get him farther than the top of the fore- wheel. It was neces- 

 sary, therefore, to do as it would do with them, and they just rammed 

 him into thp inside, although not without a good deal of sticking at the 

 door. This scene was the cause of some merriment to " sinfu' Davie 

 MofFat," and a few other scoffers, who had been attracted to the spot by 

 the crowd ; but in general the people behaved themselves with great 

 decorum, and, when the coach at last drove off, they resumed their inter- 

 locution in the low, simultaneous buzz, which follows the conclusion of 

 divine service in the kirk. 



The reflections of Ebenezer were suitable to the new, and perhaps 

 dangerous, situation in which his spiritual ambition and line of argu- 

 ment had placed him. He looked wistfully out of the window, as the 

 last of the houses appeared to rush past him; and a sinking of the heart 

 attended his look when it rested on unknown objects, and the seemingly 

 interminable expanse of strange lands around him, lying silent and 

 gloomy under the dimly-lighted sky. Then the journeys of his favourite 

 apostle, Paul, came one by one to his recollection ; and a thrill of awful 

 pride was mingled with his faint-heartedness. And then he conned over, 

 both in hope and fear, the prayers he had prayed and heard, for those 

 who, forsaking their warm homes and the flesh-pots and kail-pots of Egypt, 

 made their exodus into the wilderness of the world both those who 



