The doctor, a large powerful man, was accompanied by a clerical friend of diminutive size and small appearance, who began to speak seriously to the boatmen of their danger, and proposed that all present should join in prayer.

"Na, na," said the chief boatman; "let the _little_ ane gang to pray, but first the big ane maun tak an oar." Illustrative of the same spirit was the reply of a Scotsman of the genuine old school, "Boatie" of Deeside, of whom I have more to say, to a relative of mine.

He had been nearly lost in a squall, and saved after great exertion, and was told by my aunt that he should be grateful to providence for his safety.

The man, not meaning to be at all ungrateful, but viewing his preservation in the purely hard matter-of-fact light, quietly answered, "Weel, weel, Mrs.Russell; Providence here or Providence there, an I hadna worked sair mysell I had been drouned." Old Mr.Downie, the parish minister of Banchory, was noted, in my earliest days, for his quiet pithy remarks on men and things, as they came before him.

His reply to his son, of whose social position he had no very exalted opinion, was of this class.