She had opened the door wide ere he knew why he had come, or could think of anything to say. And now he was in greater uneasiness than usual at the thought of the cobbler’s deep-set black eyes about to be fixed upon him, as if to probe his very thoughts. “Do you think your father would have time,” he asked humbly, “to measure me for a pair of light boots?” Mr. Blatherwick was very particular about his foot-gear, and had hitherto always fitted himself at Deemouth; but he had at length learned that nothing he could there buy approached in quality, either of material or workmanship, what the soutar supplied to his poorest customer: he would mend anything worth mending, but would never _make_ anything inferior. “Ye’ll get what ye want at such and such place,” he would answer, “and I doobtna it’ll be as guid as can be made at the siller; but for my ain pairt, ye maun excuse me!” “’Deed, sir, he’ll be baith glad and prood to mak ye as guid a pair o’ beets as he can compass,” answered Maggie. “Jist step in here, sir, and lat him ken what ye want. My bairn’s greitin, and I maun gang til ’im; it’s seldom he cries oot!” The minister walked in at the open door of the kitchen, and met the eyes of the soutar expectant. “Ye’re welcome, sir!” said MacLear, and returned his eyes to what he had for a moment interrupted. “I want you to make me a nice pair of boots, if you please,” said the parson, as cheerily as he could. “I am rather particular about the fit, I fear!” “And what for no, sir?” answered the soutar. “I’ll do what I can onygait, I promise ye—but wi’ mair readiness nor confidence as to the fit; for I canna profess assurance o’ fittin’ the first time, no haein the necessar instinc’ frae the mak’ o’ the man to the shape o’ the fut, sir.” “Of course I should like to have them both neat and comfortable,” said the parson. “In coorse ye wad, sir, and sae would I! For I confess I wad fain hae my customers tak note o’ my success in followin the paittern set afore me i’ the first oreeginal fut!” “But you will allow, I suppose, that a foot is seldom as perfect now as when the divine idea of the member was first embodied by its maker?” rejoined the minister. “Ow, ay; there’s been mony an interferin circumstance; but whan His kingdom’s come, things ’ll tak a turn for the redemption o’ the feet as weel as the lave o’ the body—as the apostle Paul says i’ the twenty-third verse o’ the aucht chapter o’ his epistle to the Romans;—only I’m weel aveesed, sir, ’at there’s no sic a thing as _adoption_ mintit at i’ the original Greek. That can hae no pairt i’ what fowk ca’s the plan o’ salvation—as gien the consumin fire o’ the Love eternal was to be ca’d a _plan_! Hech, minister, it scunners me! But for the fut, it’s aye perfec’ eneuch to be _my_ pattern, for it’s the only ane I hae to follow! It’s Himsel sets the shape o’ the shune this or that man maun weir!”