There were a few amongst them, he found, already prepared
to receive the word, and to each of these he spoke in private. They
spoke to one another, then each to his friend outside the little
circle. Next a few met to pray. These drew others in, and at length
it was delivered from mouth to mouth that on the following Sunday,
at a certain early hour in the morning, a meeting would be held
in the Bailie's Barn, a cave large enough to receive all the grown
population of Scaurnose.
The news of this gathering of course reached the Seaton, where some
were inclined to go and see, others to go and hear; most of even
the latter class, however, being at the same time more than inclined
to mock at the idea of a popular religious assembly.
Not so Duncan MacPhail, who, notwithstanding the more than half
Pagan character of his ideas, had too much reverence to mock at
anything in the form of religion, to all the claims of which he
was even eager to assent: when the duty of forgiveness was pressed
upon him too hard, he would take his last refuge in excepting to
the authority of the messenger. He regarded the announcement of
the meeting with the greater respect that the man from Stornoway
was a MacLeod, and so of his mother's clan.
It was now the end of August, when the sky is of a paler blue in
the day time, and greener about the sunset. The air had in it a
touch of cold, which, like as a faint acid affects a sweet drink,
only rendered the warmth more pleasant.
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