The Doctor was then busy bringing out his laborious and valuable work, his _Harmony of the Four Gospels_.

"Na, he's gane to Edinburgh on a verra useless job." On being asked what this useless work might be which engaged his pastor's time and attention, he answered, "He's gane to mak four men agree wha ne'er cast oot." The good-humoured and candid answer of a learned and rather long-winded preacher of the old school always appeared to me quite charming.

The good man was far from being a popular preacher, and yet he could not reduce his discourses below the hour and a half.

On being asked, as a gentle hint of their possibly needless length, if he did not feel _tired_ after preaching so long, he replied, "Na, na, I'm no tired;" adding, however, with much naivete, "But, Lord, how tired the fowk whiles are." The late good kind-hearted Dr.David Dickson was fond of telling a story of a Scottish termagant of the days before kirk-session discipline had passed away.

A couple were brought before the court, and Janet, the wife, was charged with violent and undutiful conduct, and with wounding her husband by throwing a three-legged stool at his head.