PRACTICE AND PRECEPT.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 287, 13 May 1875, Page 4

PRACTICE AND PRECEPT.

An eccentric and somewhat droughty miner was one forenoon sitting in the parlor of a village public house, having just finished his last glass, and was wondering how he would be enabled to obtain the next, when suddenly the door opened and in walked a respectable looking person, apparently a grocer’s traveller, who, from his rigid constraint of maimer, and a certain peculiarity of dress, was evidently a partisan of some religious sect. Taking a seat at the opposite side of the table from the pitman, ancl being served with a glass of ale, he produced from his pocket some biscuits and cheese, and resting his elbow upon the table with his forehead in his hand, he began to ask a blessing. While his vision was thus obscured, the pitman very quietly took up the glass of ale, and draining off its contents replaced the empty glass in silence in its place. Having ended his mental request, the stranger lifted up his head, and beheld his glass was empty, and the only other occupant of the room sat looking at him with a countenance as indifferent as if his thoughts were far removed from the cause of the other’s surprise. After a moment’s pause, the stranger, in a solemn tone of voice, exclaimed, “Friend, do you ever read the Holy Scriptures ?” “ Aye, div aa,” promptly replied Geordie, “an aa wad advise ye to de the syem, and then ye wad laarn tee byth watch and pray. ”