CHAP. xii. THE LOQUACIOUS BARBER. 155 



the kirk on Sunday. When the Disruption occurred, 

 almost all the congregation went out with Mr. Taylor, 

 and set up a church of their own. But Eobert Dick, 

 who cared very little for religious politics, or even for 

 parliamentary politics, remained where he was. " 1 am 

 very well satisfied," he said, "with the church of my 

 fathers." In fact, he " stuck by the waas." * It is even 

 said that at this time, for want of leading men in the 

 church, it was proposed to make Eobert Dick an elder. 

 But a circumstance shortly after occurred which had the 

 effect of sending him away altogether. 



It seems that one day Dick met in the street a man 

 named Geddie, a barber and shoemaker in Thurso. The 

 man was loquacious and locomotive. "Ah!" said 

 Geddie, " that was a fine sermon o' the minister's yester 

 day." " Yes," said Dick, " but he was perhaps a wen 

 thocht indebted to Blair's Sermons and Hervey's Medi 

 tations" " Ay, was he ? " said the barber. Away the 

 little busybody went, and spread the report among the 

 tattle-mongers of the place. The barber's shop is always 

 the centre of gossip. The report about Dick and the 

 minister soon came to be known. Of course, it reached 

 the minister's ears. 



Dick was at that time accustomed, being an early 

 riser, to get up on fine Sunday mornings and take a walk 

 along the sea-shore, with the magnificent prospect of 

 Dunnet Head on one side and Holborn Head on the other, 

 with the Orkney Islands in the distance ; and a glorious 



* A common saying when the members of the Established dim S 

 refused to go out with the Free Kirkers. They stuck by the walls 



