STUDIES OF NATURE 



And now, round the corner of the house, 

 there comes an old friend, John Campbell, the 

 'Provost ' of Corrie, as, with good-natured banter, 

 he is usually called. Although he carries upon 

 his shoulders the weight of more than eighty 

 years, this last one seems to have added little to 

 his burden. He steps forward as if he were 

 pacing the unsteady deck of a lugger ; and, 

 putting his rough brown hand over his eyes, he 

 looks round with an air of responsible authority 

 upon the little hamlet and the wide sea as one 

 who should say ' Stands Corrie where it did ? ' 

 After salutations he opens out upon me quite at 

 random, and as if we had parted not eleven 

 months ago, but at sundown yesterday The 

 ministers nowadays are a' wrang in their theo- 

 logy j J 118 ^ blind leaders o' the blind, for not 

 the one half o' them have been properly through 

 the colleges. Why, with the Auld Testament in 

 his haund he could pit them through their cate- 

 chism hissel, and mak them a' flee before him 



