“Janet,” says he, “have you seen a black man?”

“A black man?” quo’ she.  “Save us a’!  Ye ’re no wise, minister.  There’s nae black man in a’ Ba’weary.”

But she didna speak plain, ye maun understand; but yam-yammered, like a powny wi’ the bit in its moo.

“Weel,” says he, “Janet, if there was nae black man, I have spoken with the Accuser of the Brethren.”

And he sat down like ane wi’ a fever, an’ his teeth chittered in his heid.

“Hoots!” says she, “think shame to yoursel’, minister,” an’ gied him a drap brandy that she keept aye by her.

Syne Mr. Soulis gaed into his study amang a’ his books.  It’s a lang, laigh, mirk chalmer, perishin’ cauld in winter, an’ no very dry even in the top o’ the simmer, for the manse stands near the burn.  Sae doun he sat, and thocht of a’ that had come an’ gane since he was in Ba’weary, an’ his hame, an’ the days when he was a bairn an’ ran daffin’ on the braes; and that black man aye ran in his heid like the owercome of a sang.  Aye the mair he thocht, the mair he thocht o’ the black man.  He tried the prayer, an’ the words wouldnae come to him; an’ he tried, they say, to write at his book, but he couldnae mak’ nae mair o’ that.  There was whiles he thocht the black man was at his oxter, an’ the swat stood upon him cauld as well-water; and there was other whiles when he cam’ to himsel’ like a christened bairn and minded naething.

The upshot was that he gaed to the window an’ stood glowrin’ at Dule Water.  The trees are unco thick, an’ the water lies deep an’ black under the manse; and there was Janet washing’ the cla’es wi’ her coats kilted.  She had her back to the minister, an’ he for his pairt, hardly kenned what he was lookin’ at.  Syne she turned round, an’ shawed her face; Mr. Soulis had the same cauld grue as twice that day afore, an’ it was borne in upon him what folk said, that Janet was deid lang syne, an’ this was a bogle in her clay-cauld flesh.  He drew back a pickle and he scanned her narrowly.  She was tramp-trampin’ in the cla’es, croonin’ to hersel’; and eh!  Gude guide us, but it was a fearsome face.  Whiles she sang louder, but there was nae man born o’ woman that could tell the words o’ her sang; an’ whiles she lookit sidelang doun, but there was naething there for her to look at.  There gaed a scunner through the flesh upon his banes; and that was Heeven’s advertisement.  But Mr. Soulis just blamed himsel’, he said, to think sae ill of a puir auld afflicted wife that hadnae a freend forby himsel’; an’ he put up a bit prayer for him an’ her, an’ drank a little caller water,—­for his heart rose again’ the meat,—­an’ gaed up to his naked bed in the gloaming.