A black man, the Rev.John Something-or-other, had been preaching.

Tam was full of the portent.
'A nagger,' he said, 'a great black chap as big as your father, Archie.' He seemed to have banged the bookboard with some effect, and had kept Tam, for once in his life, awake.

He had preached about the heathen in Africa, and how a black man was as good as a white man in the sight of God, and he had forecast a day when the negroes would have something to teach the British in the way of civilization.

So at any rate ran the account of Tam Dyke, who did not share the preacher's views.

'It's all nonsense, Davie.