Once I was talking with Cree Queery in a sober, respectable manner, when all at once a light broke out on his face.

I asked him what he was laughing at, and he said it was at Lang Tammas.

He got grave again when I asked him what there was in Lang Tammas to smile at, and admitted that he could not tell me.

However, I have always been of opinion that the thought of the precentor in his box gave Cree a fleeting sense of humour.
Tammas and Hendry Munn were the two paid officials of the church, Hendry being kirk-officer; but poverty was among the few points they had in common.

The precentor was a cobbler, though he never knew it, shoemaker being the name in those parts, and his dwelling-room was also his workshop.