THE CHURCH BELL. 9 



Each family consumes in a year nine bolls of 

 oatmeal and Hour, averaging out at owq Imnired 

 and twenty pounds per head per annum ; which 

 is, according to the factor, twenty-eight per cent, 

 more than the Hebridean ordinary crofter sup^^lies 

 himself and his family with. 



We slung our liannnocks in two up})er rooms of 

 the empty cottage, and turned in at midnight pre- 

 pared to bid extravagantly for slec}) ; but, alas ! just 

 as I was dropping off, I heard a resounding bump 

 on the floor and an indistinct muttering in the next 

 apartment. It was our friend, Mr. John Young, 

 who being somewhat rotund of form, had fallen out 

 of his bed of string, which unfortunately had not 

 been shapen for turning-over in. The next night we 

 turned a long form witli a high back face to the 

 wall for his accommodation, and thereafter he slept 

 in a kind of crevice from which there was no means 

 of accidental escape. 



We arose early the following morning, and, it 

 being the Sabbath Day, we prepared for service. 

 Eleven o'clock came round, but there was not a 

 sign of anybody astir on devotions bent. We 

 waited with patient curiosity until half-past twelve, 

 when an old ship's bell, erected on the top of a 

 wall near the church, began to summon worshippers 

 to the House of Prayer by a weird out-of-place 

 kind of tinkle, tinkle, tinkle. In our ignorance we 

 supposed that time was a little out of joint on the 

 island, but afterwards learnt that the indulgent 

 minister, Mr. Fiddes, had considerately given his 

 little flock an hour and a half's grace out of 

 compassion for them, on account of their extra 

 toil and exertion in landing their provisions the 

 previous day. 



The church, which is also used as a day-school, 



