from some feeling, I know
not of what kind, the child was never distinguished by the name of Effie, but by
the abbreviation of Femie, which in Scotland is equally commonly applied to
persons called Euphemia.
    In this state of quiet and unostentatious enjoyment, there were, besides the
ordinary rubs and ruffles which disturb even the most uniform life, two things
which particularly chequered Mrs. Butler's happiness. »Without these,« she said
to our informer, »her life would have been but too happy; and perhaps,« she
added, »she had need of some crosses in this world to remind her that there was
a better to come behind it.«
    The first of these related to certain polemical skirmishes betwixt her
father and her husband, which, notwithstanding the mutual respect and affection
they entertained for each other, and their great love for her - notwithstanding,
also, their general agreement in strictness, and even severity, of Presbyterian
principle - often threatened unpleasant weather between them. David Deans, as
our readers must be aware, was sufficiently opinionative and intractable, and
having prevailed on himself to become a member of a kirk-session under the
Established Church, he felt doubly obliged to evince that, in so doing, he had
not compromised any whit of his former professions, either in practice or
principle. Now Mr. Butler, doing all credit to his father-in-law's motives, was
frequently of opinion that it were better to drop out of memory points of
division and separation, and to act in the manner most likely to attract and
unite all parties who were serious in religion. Moreover, he was not pleased, as
a man and a scholar, to be always dictated, to by his unlettered father-in-law;
and as a clergyman, he did not think it fit to seem for ever under the thumb of
an elder of his own kirk-session. A proud but honest thought carried his
opposition now and then a little farther than it would otherwise have gone. »My
brethren,« he said, »will suppose I am flattering and conciliating the old man
for the sake of his succession, if I defer and give way to him on every
occasion; and, besides, there are many on which I neither can nor will
conscientiously yield to his notions. I cannot be persecuting old women for
witches, or ferreting out matter of scandal among the young ones, which might
otherwise have remained concealed.«
    From this difference of opinion it happened that, in many cases of nicety,
such as in owning certain defections