Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

YOUTHFUL BAYS.
17
and it rested on the “scratch wig” too far forward to fall
off. So I must needs pull the string; and as my ill fortune
would have it, the pin would not come; I drew.it harder
and harder, very cautiously, till it was tight. The pin
had caught somewhere. Now I knew, if detected, I
should be severely punished. The temptation was so
strong to pull off that wig, that it seemed to me, I must
do it; my fingers itched; I began almost to tremble with
the excitement. I looked at my father. He saw nothing.
All were attentively listening to the preacher. I must do
it; so, looking straight at the minister, and giving one
sharp, sudden jerk, off came the wig. I let go of the
string; poor Billy sprung from his seat, and, clasping both
hands to his head, cried, “Goo—Goo—Good Lord!”—
to the astonishment of the congregation. But there in
our pew lay the wig, with pin and string attached, as
positive evidence against me. One look at my father’s
face convinced me that “I had done it,” and should “catch
it,” and “catch it” I did. My father waited till Monday,,
and in the morning conducted me to Billy Bennett’s, and
made me beg his pardon very humbly. Billy was very
good-natured, and actually tried to beg me off; but my
father declared he would “dust my jacket for me.” And
he did; or at any rate, would have dusted it most
thoroughly, but he made me take it off—so that the jacket
was none the better for the “dusting,” but my shoulders
and back “ suffered some,” and it served me right. All
through my life this tendency to “ make fun” has been of
no advantage to me, though it has given me many a hearty
laugh.
When I was about nine years old my father entered the
service of the Rev. J. D. Glennie, a clergyman of the
Church of England, and chaplain to Lord Darnley, residing
in the village, and officiating in the chapel of ease built