"
"Havers," MacLure would answer, "prices are low, a' 'm hearin'; gie 's
thirty shillin's."
"No, a' 'll no, or the wife 'ill tak' ma ears aff," and it was settled
for two pounds.
Lord Kilspindie gave him a free house and fields, and one way or other,
Drumsheugh told me the doctor might get in about one hundred and fifty
pounds a year, out of which he had to pay his old housekeeper's wages
and a boy's, and keep two horses, besides the cost of instruments and
books, which he bought through a friend in Edinburgh with much judgment.
There was only one man who ever complained of the doctor's charges, and
that was the new farmer of Milton, who was so good that he was above
both churches, and held a meeting in his barn. (It was Milton the Glen
supposed at first to be a Mormon, but I can't go into that now.) He
offered MacLure a pound less than he asked, and two tracts, whereupon
MacLure expressed his opinion of Milton, both from a theological and
social standpoint, with such vigour and frankness that an attentive
audience of Drumtochty men could hardly contain themselves.
Jamie Soutar was selling his pig at the time, and missed the meeting,
but he hastened to condole with Milton, who was complaining everywhere
of the doctor's language.
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