



Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover]




[Illustration: "HERE HE IS!  TAK' HIM AND FINISH HIM"  Page 44]




                              The Starling

                            A Scottish Story


                                   BY
                             NORMAN MACLEOD



                               Author of
       "Reminiscences of a Highland Parish" "Character Sketches"
                "The Old Lieutenant and his Son" &c. &c.



                         BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
                           LONDON AND GLASGOW




BLACKIE & SON LIMITED
 50 Old Bailey, London
 17 Stanhope Street, Glasgow

BLACKIE & SON (INDIA) LIMITED
 Warwick House, Fort Street, Bombay

BLACKIE & SON (CANADA) LIMITED
 1118 Bay Street, Toronto



        Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son, Ltd., Glasgow




                           BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Norman Macleod was born, in 1812, at Campbeltown, in Argyllshire, where
his father was parish minister. Educated in Campbeltown and Campsie for
a time, he entered the University of Glasgow in 1827, and in 1837 became
a licensed minister of the Church of Scotland.  From 1838 to 1843 ne was
minister of Loudoun parish in Ayrshire, from 1843 to 1851 of Dalkeith
parish, and from 1851 till his death in 1872 of the Barony Parish,
Glasgow.  He was appointed chaplain to Queen Victoria in 1857, and next
year received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University. He edited
_Good Words_ from its foundation in 1860 till his death, and he also
gained great literary success with the following books: _The Gold
Thread_ (1861), _The Old Lieutenant and his Son_ (1862), _Parish Papers_
(1862), _Wee Davie_ (1864), _Eastward_ (1866), _Reminiscences of a
Highland Parish_ (1867), _The Starling_ (1867), _Peeps at the Far East_
(1871), _The Temptation of Our Lord_ (1872), and _Character Sketches_
(1872).




                                Contents


CHAP.

      I. Antecedents
     II. The Elder and his Starling
    III. The Starling a Disturber of the Peace
     IV. The Rev. Daniel Porteous
      V. The Sergeant and his Starling in Trouble
     VI. The Starling on his Trial
    VII. The Sergeant on his Trial
   VIII. The Conference in the Manse
     IX. Charlie's Cot once More Occupied
      X. The Sergeant Alone with the Starling
     XI. The Old Soldier and his Young Pupil on Sunday Evening
    XII. Adam Mercer, Sergeant, but not Elder
   XIII. Jock Hall, the Ne'er-do-Weel
    XIV. Jock Hall's Conspiracy
     XV. Jock Hall's Journey
    XVI. Fishers and Fishing
   XVII. The Keeper's Home
  XVIII. The Keeper's Letter
    XIX. Extremes Meet
     XX. Jock Hall's Return
    XXI. The Quack
   XXII. Corporal Dick
  XXIII. Corporal Dick at the Manse
   XXIV. Dr. Scott and his Servant
    XXV. Mr. Smellie's Diplomacy
   XXVI. The Starling Again in Danger
  XXVII. The Sergeant's Sickness and his Sick-Nurse
 XXVIII. Mr. Porteous Visits the Sergeant
   XXIX. The Minister Pure and Peaceable
    XXX. "A Man's a Man for a' That"




                         List of Illustrations


"Here he is!  Tak' him and finish him"  _Frontispiece_

"Are you aware, Mr. Mercer, of what has just happened?"

"I'll keep Mary"

"I was but axin' a ceevil question, Mr. Spence"




                              THE STARLING



                               CHAPTER I

                              ANTECEDENTS


"The man was aince a poacher!"  So said, or rather breathed with his
hard wheezing breath, Peter Smellie, shopkeeper and elder, into the ears
of Robert Menzies, a brother elder, who was possessed of a more humane
disposition.  They were conversing in great confidence about the
important "case" of Sergeant Adam Mercer.  What that case was, the
reader will learn by and by.  The only reply of Robert Menzies was,
"Is't possible!" accompanied by a start and a steady gaze at his
well-informed brother.  "It's a fac' I tell ye," continued Smellie, "but
ye'll keep it to yersel'--keep it to yers