HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND CHARACTER. 483 



He then discoursed of reason being God's greatest gift to 

 man, saying how thankful we ought to feel to be thus 

 41 clothed and in our right mind," and asking his friend 

 if he had ever viewed the possession of decent dress as a 

 proof of sanity. 



John inherited a good deal of naive mother-wit, com- 

 bined with no little latent humour, though his sallies in 

 this direction were considerably checked by his reticent 

 nature and stern religiousness. He liked to give common 

 things characteristic names, calling the teapot, for instance, 

 "crook-moo 5 ," and the kettle, " the black duchess." During 

 the Disruption excitement, when his contempt of the 

 Erastian " Moderates " who remained in the " Auld Kirk " 

 for the sake of " the loaves and the fishes," was keenest, 

 he used to remark that " fyow o' them cared to gang to 

 Auchtertess, but when they did change, they likit aye to 

 gang to Auchtermair / " Auchterless * being the name 

 of an Aberdeen parish frequently punned upon in this and 

 similar ways. 



John had several humorous stories which he used to 

 tell in genial society. When he observed any exhibition 

 of silly pride, accompanied by super-fineness of speech, he 

 told a story of a Scotchman in humble life who went to 

 Jamaica and became rich. On returning home, he treated 

 his former acquaintances with supercilious hauteur, and, 

 despising his mother tongue, used only the finest English at 

 his command. He pretended not to know even the names 

 of any of the common objects of the farm where he had 

 been brought up. Pointing one day to a " riddle " or sieve 



* Part of the pun lies in the first syllable also, "audit" being 

 Scotch for "possessed." The name of the place is Gaelic. 



