CHAPTER IX .-- BENJIE'S CHRISTENING.
We'll hap and row, hap and row, We'll hap and row the feetie o't.
It is a wee bit weary thing, I dinnie bide the greetie o't.
PROVOST CREECH.
An honest man, close button'd to the chin, Broad-cloth without, and a warm heart within.
COWPER.
This great globe and all that it inherits shall dissolve, And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, Leave not a rack behind.
SHAKSPEARE.
At the christening of our only bairn, Benjie, two or three remarkable circumstances occurred, which it behoves me to relate.
It was on a cold November afternoon; and really when the bit room was all redd up, the fire bleezing away, and the candles lighted, every thing looked full tosh and comfortable.

It was a real pleasure, after looking out into the drift that was fleeing like mad from the east, to turn one's neb inwards, and think that we had a civilized home to comfort us in the dreary season.

So, one after another, the bit party we had invited to the ceremony came papping in; and the crack began to get loud and hearty; for, to speak the truth, we were blessed with canny friends, and a good neighbourhood.

Notwithstanding, it was very curious, that I had no mind of asking down James Batter, the weaver, honest man, though he was one of our own elders; and in papped James, just when the company had haffins met, with his stocking-sleeves on his arms, his nightcap on his head, and his blue-stained apron hanging down before him, to light his pipe at our fire.
James, when he saw his mistake, was fain to make his retreat; but we would not hear tell of it, till he came in, and took a dram out of the bottle, as we told him the not doing so would spoil the wean's beauty, which is an old freak, (the smallpox, however, afterwards did that;) so, with much persuasion, he took a chair for a gliff, and began with some of his drolls--for he is a clever, humoursome man, as ye ever met with.

But he had now got far on with his jests, when lo! a rap came to the door, and Mysie whipped away the bottle under her apron, saying "Wheesht, wheesht, for the sake of gudeness, there's the minister!" The room had only one door, and James mistook it, running his head, for lack of knowledge, into the open closet, just as the minister lifted the outer-door sneck.