brother's man was out of the way he made his own servants fill the two casks with water-gruel instead of whisky. Next day the man returned to Tollie, believing the casks to be full of whisky. It was Christmas eve when he reached Tollie, and a party was assembled to celebrate the festivities of the season. But when the casks were opened there was no whisky,--only water-gruel! The Rev. James Smith, after an interregnum of five years caused by the difficulty of finding a clergyman willing to undertake the charge of this wild parish, succeeded Mr Morrison in 1721. In his day the Presbytery of Gairloch was erected. A sum of £1000 was allowed him by the Assembly, and the heritors or proprietors of the parish provided a manse with garden and glebe, and erected churchyard dykes. Mr Smith was a man of energy, and effected much in the way of reforming the morals of his people and spreading religion among them. In 1725 he had a missionary catechist at work, and he established a presbyterial library. In 1724 a school was established in Gairloch by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, but was removed to Strathglass in 1728 for want of encouragement by the people. However, the first parochial school in Gairloch was in operation before Mr Smith's removal. Though under Mr Smith Presbyterianism appears to have made way in Gairloch, it was otherwise in the contiguous parish of Lochcarron. The hero of the following incident is said to have been the Rev. Mr Sage, first Presbyterian minister of Lochcarron. He was settled in Lochcarron in 1727, and in 1731 prayed the presbytery for "an act of transportability." Mr Sage, who was a very powerful man, was travelling on foot to Gairloch _viâ_ Glen Torridon, accompanied by his servant, a mere boy, who carried the "bonnet" which held the provisions for the way. Two of Mr Sage's parishioners had conspired to put an end to his life. They followed him, and after a time joined company, beguiling the way with conversation, until a fit place should be reached for the carrying out of the projected murder. When they came to the burn of the Black Corrie the minister announced that the luncheon hour had arrived, and asked his parishioners to join him. He took the "bonnet" from the boy, and began to dispense the viands. The would-be assassins seated themselves quite close to the minister, one on either side, and the leader now at last mustered pluck enough to inform Mr Sage that he had been condemned to die, and that his hour had come. The powerful minister instantly threw an arm round the neck of each of the villains, and squeezed their heads downwards against each other and upon his own thighs with paralysing force, holding them thus until they were on the verge of suffocation, when, in response to their abject screams for mercy and promises of safety for himself, he released them from his strong pressure, and they went away both better and wiser, let us hope,