294 



THE IRR1 GA Tl ON A GE. 



with suspicion, as procured by "artificially 

 created wind.'' The clergy even argued 

 that "winds were raised by God alone, and 

 that it was irreligious in man to attempt to 

 raise the wind by his own efforts." Scott 

 is evidently expressing the popular senti- 

 ment when, in "Old Mortality," he makes 

 one of his characters chide those who would 

 raise wind "by human art, instead of so- 

 liciting it by prayer, or waiting patiently 

 for whatever dispensation of wind Provi- 

 dence iras pleased to send upon the sheal- 

 ing-hill. " 



Stories are still told, in the neighbor- 

 hood where Meikle lived, of the labor-sav- 

 ing contrivances he adopted in his own 

 househrld. One day a woman came to the 

 mill to get some barley ground, and was 

 asked to sit down in the cottage, hard by 

 till it was ready. With the first sound of 

 the mill wheels, the cradle and the churn 

 at her side began to rock and to churn, as 

 if influenced by some supernatural agency. 

 No one but herself was in the house, and 

 see rushed from it, frightened almost out 

 of her wits. 



Such incidents brought an ill-name on 

 Meikle, and the neighbors declared of him 

 that he was "no canny." 



He was often summoned to great dis- 

 tances, for the purpose of repairing pumps 

 or setting mills to rights. On one occa- 

 sion when he undertook to supply a gen- 

 tleman's house with water, so many coun- 

 try mechanics had tried it before and 

 failed that the butler would not believe 

 Meikle when he told him to get everything 



ready, as the water would be sent in the 

 next day. 



"It will be time enough to get ready," 

 said the incredulous butler, "when we see 

 the water." 



Meikle pocketed the affront, but set his 

 machinery to work early the next morning; 

 and so well did the engineer fulfill his 

 promise that when the butler got out of 

 bed he found himself up to his knees in 

 water. 



Meikle reaped no financial reward from 

 his inventions; his name is scarcely men- 

 tioned in Scotch biography; yet the state- 

 ment on the monument erected to his 

 memory is literally true: "He rendered 

 to the agriculturists of Britian and of 

 other nations a more beneficial service 

 than any hitherto recorded in the annuals 

 of ancient or modern science." Youth's 

 Companion. 



A Georgia Granger who quit raising 

 4-cent cotton and has gone to real farming 

 says he now has 



Corn in the crib, 



Chicken in the yard, 

 Meat in the smoke house 



And a tub full of lard. 

 Milk in the dairy, 



Butter by the load, 

 Coffee in the tin box 



And sugar in the gourd. 

 Cream in the pitcher, 



Honey in the mug, 

 Cider in the "Jimmy John" 



And licker in the jug. 



