of Lugton, was a jocose man, and would have his joke even at a
solemnity. When the laying of the hands upon me was adoing, he
could not get near enough to put on his, but he stretched out his
staff and touched my head, and said, to the great diversion of the
rest, "This will do well enough, timber to timber;" but it was an
unfriendly saying of Mr Given, considering the time and the place,
and the temper of my people.

After the ceremony, we then got out at the window, and it was a
heavy day to me; but we went to the manse, and there we had an
excellent dinner, which Mrs Watts of the new inns of Irville {2}
prepared at my request, and sent her chaise-driver to serve, for he
was likewise her waiter, she having then but one chaise, and that no
often called for.

But, although my people received me in this unruly manner, I was
resolved to cultivate civility among them, and therefore, the very
next morning I began a round of visitations; but, oh! it was a steep
brae that I had to climb, and it needed a stout heart. For I found
the doors in some places barred against me; in others, the bairns,
when they saw me coming, ran crying to their mothers, "Here's the
feckless Mess-John!" and then, when I went into the houses, their
parents wouldna ask me to sit down, but with a scornful way, said,
"Honest man, what's your pleasure here?" Nevertheless, I walked
about from door to door like a dejected beggar, till I got the
almous deed of a civil reception--and who would have thought it?--
from no less a person than the same Thomas Thorl that was so bitter
against me in the kirk on the foregoing day.

Thomas was standing at the door with his green duffle apron, and his