42 The Little Minister

the dam rather than let the drink master me, but
in case it should get haud o’ me and I should die
drunk, it would be a michty gratification to me to
ken that you had the siller to bury me respectable
without ony help frae the poor’s rates.’ The
minister wasna for taking it at first, but he took it
when he saw how earnest my father was. Ay,
he’s a noble man. After he gaed awa my father
made me learn the names o’ the apostles frae Luke
sixth, and he says to me, ‘ Miss out Bartholo-
mew,’ he says, ‘for he did little, and put Gavin
Dishart in his place.’ ”

Feeling as old as he sometimes tried to look,
Gavin turned homeward. Margaret was already
listening for him. You may be sure she knew
his step. I think our steps vary as much as the
human face. My bookshelves were made by a
blind man who could identify by their steps
nearly all who passed his window. Yet he has
admitted to me that he could not tell wherein
my steps differ from others; and this I believe,
though rejecting his boast that he could distin-

ish a minister's step from a doctor’s, and even
tell to which denomination the minister belonged.

I have sometimes asked myself what would
have been Gavin’s future had he gone straight
home that night from’ Dow’s. He would doubt-
less have seen the Egyptian before morning broke,
but she would not have come upon him like a
witch. There are, I dare say, many lovers who
would never have been drawn to each other had
they met for the first time, as, say, they met the
second time. But such dreaming is to no purpose.
Gavin met Sanders Webster, the mole-catcher, and