IN THE HIGHLANDS 197 



water must be taken, to put plenty of whisky in it to 

 counteract its flatness and make it more wholesome ! 

 It would have been an unpardonable sin to go to the 

 spring, which was quite near the manse, for a jug of 

 fresh water; anyone guilty of doing so would render 

 himself liable to undergo Church discipline and censure 

 from the Kirk Session. 



How well I remember also hearing of the case of a 

 big boat returning from the Caithness herring fishing, 

 which was long delayed on its voyage by storms and 

 adverse winds, and managed to get to Loch Ewe only on 

 a Sunday forenoon shortly before church-time. The 

 owner of the boat was an elder in the Free Church, and 

 very much respected, but even he could hardly solve 

 that most difficult question of the moment — which 

 would be the greater sin, viz., to shave of! some of the 

 ten days' growth of hair on their faces to make them- 

 selves look respectable, or to keep away from church ? 

 At length it was decided that, shaving on Sunday being 

 a quite unpardonable sin, it would be less wicked, 

 perhaps (just for once in a way), to stay away from 

 church ! 



My uncle, who had quite a model farm on Isle Ewe, 

 with a byre of thirty pedigree Ayrshire cows, required 

 turnips to be harrowed to them twice a day, but on 

 Sunday the cattleman could not think of using a barrow, 

 aB it was on a wheel; so, in his best Sunday suit, he 

 carried in all the muddy turnips for the cows in armfuls, 

 and though a martyr to turnips in this world, he looked 

 to being recompensed accordingly in the world to come ! 

 I also well remember how my dear mother, when we lived 



