So the schoolroom was crowded with "Establishers," for the Kers would not come within such a tainted building as a parochial school--except to a comic n****r minstrel performance, which in Howpaslet levels and composes all differences. So instead they waited at the windows and listened. One prominent and officious stoop of the Kirk tried to shut a window. But he got a Ker's clicky[9] over his head from without, and sat down discouraged.
[Footnote 9: Shepherd's staff.]
"Wull it come to ocht, think ye?" the Kers asked of each other outside.
"I'm rale dootfu'," was the general opinion; "but we maun juist howp for the best."
So the Kers stood without and hoped for the best--which, being interpreted, was that their champions, the Reverend William Calvin and Saunders Ker of the Mains, would
