Such gifts seem to have been in the air, if the expression may be condoned. Among the village characters with their little days and doings in John Galt’s “Annals of the Parish,” is a “Miss Sabrina,” who took up the school during the reign of the minister, the Rev. Mr. Balwhidder, and, during the same pastorate, died (1800). Mr. Balwhidder writes the account, the annals of the parish where he lived and worked; and though a legacy might not be wholly unexpected, the form of it certainly was surprising. “Miss Sabrina, who was always an oddity and aping grandeur, it was found had made a will, leaving her gatherings to her favourites, with all regular formality. To one she bequeathed a gown, to another this, and a third that, and to me a pair of black silk stockings. I was amazed when I heard this but judge what I felt, when a pair of old marrowless stockings, darned in the heel, and not whole enough in the legs to make a pair of mittens to Mrs. Balwhidder, were delivered to me by her executor, Mr. Caption, the lawyer.” Really, we can hardly believe it, even after the instances quoted. But let this chapter close with the account of Sir Roger de Coverley’s will as told by Edward Biscuit, his faithful butler, in the pages of the old _Spectator_. “It being a very cold day when he made his will, he left for mourning to every man in the parish a great frize coat, and to every woman a black riding-hood. It was a most moving sight to see him take leave of his poor servants, commending us all for our fidelity, whilst we were not able to speak a word for weeping. As we most of us are grown grey-headed in our dear master’s service, he has left us pensions and legacies, which we may live very comfortably upon the remaining part of our days.” CHAPTER XIII ANIMALS AND PETS “William de Coningsby Came out of Brittany, With his wife Tiffany And his maid Manfas And his dog Hardigras.” A testator who spends careful thought upon his servants may not unnaturally have a concern for the welfare of his animals and pets. When Boswell notes Dr. Johnson’s “uncommon kindness to his servants,” he proceeds immediately to speak of his fondness for animals under his protection. “I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat; for whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters lest the servants, having that trouble, should take a dislike to the poor creature.”