272 The Naturalist of Citmbrae. 



On one of these visits to Campbelton they had 

 with them a party of friends, including a gentleman 

 from Edinburgh, then and since eminent for his truly 

 religious character and strict behaviour. 



One Sunday morning, as they were all about to 

 start for church, a violent storm, or what they would 

 expressively call a thunder-plump, occurred, and de- 

 tained them. When the rain ceased, however, they 

 set out and managed to enter the church just as the 

 sermon was finished. 



Their specially religious friend marched up the 

 aisle, perhaps not altogether without an air of con- 

 scious virtue for having struggled through the mire 

 to attend the fag-end of a service, so that his com- 

 panions could not help inwardly chuckling, when the 

 preacher proceeded forthwith very gravely to pray 

 "for the souls of Sunday stragglers." 



Had the divine known all the circumstances of the 

 case, he might have modified his form of expression, 

 but Scotch theologians are no respecters of persons. 

 How little tender they can sometimes be to the hopes 

 of humanity is shown in an anecdote which Mr. 

 Robertson delights to tell of a Highland preacher. 

 He was illustrating the difficulty of entering the 

 kingdom of heaven, and thus addressed his flock on 

 the subject: "Ye ken Alexander McDonald's coo, 

 his brown coo. Aweel, if that coo could dim' a tree 

 with his tail foremost and harry a bird's nest, ye 

 might have a chance of climbing into the kingdom 

 of heaven." 



In July of this same year, Dr. G. S. Brady and his 

 family paid a visit to Fern Bank. This was not their 



