Loan in the gloamin', whilk was an unco time an' place for a God-fearin'

woman. Howsoever, it was the laird himsel' that had first tauld the

minister o' Janet; and in thae days he wad have gane a far gate to

pleesure the laird. When folk tauld him that Janet was sib to the deil,

it was a' superstition by his way of it; an' when they cast up the Bible

to him an' the witch of Endor, he wad threep it doun their thrapples that

thir days were a' gane by, and the deil was mercifully restrained.

Weel, when it got about the clachan that Janet M'Clour was to be servant

at the manse, the folk were fair mad wi' her an' him thegether; and some

o' the guidwives had nae better to dae than get round her door cheeks and

chairge her wi' a' that was ken't again her, frae the sodger's bairn to

John Tamson's twa kye. She was nae great speaker; folk usually let her

gang her ain gate, an' she let them gang theirs, wi', neither Fair-guid-

een nor Fair-guid-day; but when she buckled to, she had a tongue to deave

the miller. Up she got, an' there wasnae an auld story in Ba'weary but

she gart somebody lowp for it that day; they couldnae say ae thing but

she could say twa to it; till, at the hinder end, the guidwives up and

claught haud of her, and clawed the coats aff her back, and pu'd her doun

the clachan to the water o' Dule, to see if she were a witch or no, soum

or droun. The carline skirled till ye could hear her at the Hangin'

Shaw, and she focht like ten; there was mony a guidwife bure the mark of

her neist day an' mony a lang day after; and just in the hettest o' the

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