Without "the tents," therefore, the congregation, with a long day before them, would have been badly off.

Sometimes one tent sufficed; at other times rival publicans were on the ground.

The tents were those in use at the feeing and other markets, and you could get anything inside them, from broth made in a "boiler" to the fieriest whisky.

They were planted just outside the kirk-gate--long, low tents of dirty white canvas--so that when passing into the church or out of it you inhaled their odours.

The congregation emerged austerely from the church, shaking their heads solemnly over the minister's remarks, and their feet carried them into the tent.