Mr. Dinleloof, as the courteous reader probably recollects, is the sticket minister whom Miss Beeny Needles, my wife's aunt, recommended to my attention, as “a perforated clergyman.” On the increase of the town, he was induced to set up a school, of a grade inferior to that of Mr. Bell, and was also nominal editor of Mr. Semple's newspaper, “The Chopper, or the Oracle of the Woods.” He was a man that, from natural modesty, shrunk out of society; but those who were within the narrow circle to which he limited himself, spoke favourably of him. I knew him but slightly, for he was such a sequestered creature that, unless you went and drew him out of his shell as you would a whilk or a snail, you could make no acquaintance with him, and I had too many things at all times upon my hands to be able to do that often. Perhaps he therefore thought that I did not pay him quite so much attention as Miss Beeny had led him to expect; for once or twice, when I fell in with him in the street, it struck me that he eschewed me; if he did so, it was without reason.

As I have intimated, it was late in the evening when we of the session resolved to ask him to preach, and but one day could be allowed for him to prepare, if he agreed. I may be wrong in supposing that Mr. Bell, by leaving us no time to procure a minister, counted on drawing a part of our congregation after himself to his new tabernacle: whether this was an unjust supposition on my part, or was the effect of a fair estimate of the man's inordinate character, I leave it to the sagacity of the reader to determine.

When I entered the humble habitation of Mr. Dinleloof, he was certainly much surprised, and gazed at me with a look of alarm, as if he thought I had come with strange news or evil tidings. He was about going into his solitary bed, for he was a bachelor; his upper garments were already cast off, he had also quitted his trowsers, and was standing in his drawers, with one leg bare, and a stocking in his hand.