104 The Little Minister

Gavin stowed the cloak beneath the garret bed,
and an hour afterwards was engaged on his ser-
mon, when he distinctly heard some one in the
garret. He ran up the ladder with a terrible
brow for Jean, but it was not Jean; it was
Margaret.

“Mother,” he said, in alarm, “what are you
doing here?”

“1 am only tidying up the garret, Gavin.”

“Yes, but —it is too cold for you. Did Jean
— did Jean‘ask you to come up here?”

“Jean? She knows her place better.”

Gavin took Margaret down to the parlour, but
his confidence in the garret had gone. He stole
up the ladder again, dragged the cloak from its
lurking-place, and took it into the garden. He
very nearly met Jean in the lobby again, but
hearing him coming she fled precipitately, which
he thought very suspicious.

In the garden he dug a hole, and there buried
the cloak, but even now he was not done with it.
He was awakened early by a noise of scraping in
the garden, and his first thought was “ Jean!”
But peering from the window, he saw that the
resurrectionist was a dog, which already had its
teeth in the cloak.

That forenoon Gavin left the manse unosten-
tatiously carrying a brown paper parcel. He
proceeded to the hill, and, having dropped the
parcel there, retired hurriedly. On his way home,
nevertheless, he was overtaken by D. Fittis, who
had been cutting down whins. Fittis had seen
the parcel fall, and, running after Gavin, returned
it to him, Gavin thanked D. Fittis, and then