At the end
of the second night's debate we were to rest two days, and the Colonel
was so kind as to invite me, and even to press me, to spend those days
with him at his residence near Ayr. The Colonel had given his good lady
so favorable an account of my behaviour in the debate, that she wrote to
me enforcing her good husband's invitation. I went. I could do no other.
The Colonel and his venerable father met me at the station with a
carriage, and I was soon in the midst of the Colonel's truly Christian
and happy family. Neither the Colonel nor any of his household attempted
to draw me into controversy. Not a word was spoken that was calculated
to make me feel uneasy. There seemed no effort on the part of any one,
yet every thing was said and done in such a way as to make me feel
myself perfectly at home. Love, true Christian love, under the guidance
of the highest culture, was the moving spirit in the Colonel's family
circle. A visit to the birthplace of Burns, and to the banks of Bonny
Doon, was proposed, and a most delightful stroll we had, made all the
more pleasant by the Colonel's remarks on the various objects of
interest that came in view, and his apt quotation of passages from the
works of the poet, referring to the scenery amidst which we were moving.
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