"Twice," said Elspeth, "he tried to speak, and twice he let the words fall." "That," said Waster Lunny, "the whole congregation admits, but I didna see it mysel', for a' this time you may picture me hunting savage-like for Ezra. I thocht the minister was waiting till I found it." "Hendry Munn," said Birse, "stood upon one leg, wondering whether he should run to the session-house for a glass of water." "But by that time," said Elspeth, "the fit had left Mr. Dishart, or rather it had ta'en a new turn. He grew red, and it's gospel that he stamped his foot." "He had the face of one using bad words," said the post. "He didna swear, of course, but that was the face he had on." "I missed it," said Waster Lunny, "for I was in full cry after Ezra, with the sweat running down my face." "But the most astounding thing has yet to be telled," went on Elspeth. "The minister shook himsel' like one wakening frae a nasty dream, and he cries in a voice of thunder, just as if he was shaking his fist at somebody--" "He cries," Birse interposed, cleverly, "he cries, 'You will find the text in Genesis, chapter three, verse six.'" "Yes," said Elspeth, "first he gave out one text, and then he gave out another, being the most amazing thing to my mind that ever happened in the town of Thrums. What will our children's children think o't? I wouldna ha'e missed it for a pound note." "Nor me," said Waster Lunny, "though I only got the tail o't. Dominie, no sooner had he said Genesis third and sixth, than I laid my finger on Ezra. Was it no provoking? Onybody can turn up Genesis, but it needs an able-bodied man to find Ezra." "He preached on the Fall," Elspeth said, "for an hour and twenty-five minutes, but powerful though he was I would rather he had telled us what made him gie the go-by to Ezra." "All I can say," said Waster Lunny, "is that I never heard him mair awe-inspiring. Whaur has he got sic a knowledge of women? He riddled them, he fair riddled them, till I was ashamed o' being married." "It's easy kent whaur he got his knowledge of women," Birse explained, "it's a' in the original Hebrew. You can howk ony mortal thing out o' the original Hebrew, the which all ministers hae at their finger ends. What else makes them ken to jump a verse now and then when giving out a psalm?" "It wasna women like me he denounced," Elspeth insisted, "but young lassies that leads men astray wi' their abominable wheedling ways." "Tod," said her husband, "if they try their hands on Mr. Dishart they'll meet their match." "They will," chuckled the post. "The Hebrew's a grand thing, though teuch, I'm telled, michty teuch."