into a man, and blessed with an excellent capacity, yet scarcely able to read-what did her pining grief avail? The least sound of the huntsman's whistle, or the yelp of a hound, was enough at any time to make you forget both father and mother, and all the joy and all the sorrow they could feel; and yet here you stand overflowing with discontent because you are not an accomplished gentleman! And it does not at all appear to me that you consider you are what you are from your own fault, or that you feel any sort of remorse for neglecting the means of instruction, which, with your abilities well directed, might before now have placed you far on the road to that very rank you so much envy; indeed, I rather think you are much inclined to arraign Providence for your present situation.' Oh, Simon,' he cried, 'no, not Providence, now that ye've cleared my e'en; no, my puir mother, my dear mother; Lord forgi'e me that sae ill requited her! but oh, my father, my father! tho' he whyles gied me a lashing or a heavy thumping whan I was out o' the gate when he wanted me, or happened to be provoked at me when he was fashed, he laught at my tricks for a' that, and mony a time ca'd me a bit clever deevil, that wad either mak' a spune or spoil a horn, loud enough for my gleg lugs to hear. So I was prouder o that sort o' praise than I was vexed at the thrashing; and as to my mother, I some gate thought it was just a fashion wi' mothers to think their ain weans didna do weel eneugh, so I ne'er fashed,-Lord forgive me!' I hope, indeed, the Lord will forgive you, James,' said I; 'but our conduct, whether good or bad, generally meets some of its reward or punishment even in this world, and so you must feel it now, as you can't but be sensible the Almighty will not work a miracle, and alter the ordinary course of providence, to prevent you dreeing the consequences of your early disobedience and sins. You would not learn to read, and write, and count, during the four years your then rich father put it in your power, and paid for your schooling to the best and cleverest master in the country. Your Maker blessed you with talents, which, well employed, might have made you a great man: but you chose to remain ignorant, and ignorant you must now remain. The season for learning is past for ever, even if you had now the time and the means. Our minds, like our bodies, grow clumsy and stiff, if they have not been exercised in our young days; and you or I might as well try to gar our great strong fingers and thumbs flee over the notes of a piano, as your favourite young ladies do, like the wind fluttering the leaves of that poplar, as one who has not learned to exercise his mind when young, need try to set it a-learning when old. So, James, take warning; you have lost your own spring-time, and you can't now reap a crop where you never sowed the seed; but you may yet reap experience, which, though often a bitter, may be a valuable harvest in our old age. Look well now to your own conduct and your own little ones; teach them obedience to yourself and their mother from their earliest hours, and do n't think if you let the infant disobey you, that the boy will do your bidding. Beware how you suffer them to slight their mother's precepts; you have but to remember your own fate to hinder you ever forgetting the importance of this. And when you send them to school, see that they do their duty there; question the master often about their behaviour; and, as you value their well-doing, enforce his precepts as well as their mother's. Though it would be folly now to set about learning things above the sphere you have fixed yourself in, there is much in it that you can learn, and that it is your duty to learn. I'm much mistaken, tho' ye 've had the Bible in your possession all your days, if there is n't a good deal in it you have stil! to read, and much, much in it you have still to learn. Never sit bumming with it before your eyes, between sleep and awake, as if glowring at the words were all ye had to do with it. Read it aloud to your wife and bairns, a little at a time-ye'll improve by practice- and explain't to them the

best way ye can. And don't let this be the dreary toil of a wet Sunday, but the cheerful employment of all your evenings after your work, to teach your children betimes to think of the Bible with affection as well as reverence. They know little of it who do not feel it to be one of the most interesting as well as holiest of books; and by telling your little ones, as the reward of good behaviour, the histories of the great and holy men with which it is stored, they will learn to consider hearing and reading it their greatest privilege. But you need not be confined to the Bible. If you are willing, you will always be able to find other and most useful books to read to your family. Only-mark ye, Jemmy-remember aye to wash your hands after your work, before ever ye touch a book. Nothing is so provoking as to have a book dirtied inside or outside, and the leaves folded down or crumpled; and it is the fear of having them ill used, that makes many a one unwilling to lend. But only be careful of them, and, I'll answer for it, the schoolmaster and the minister-ay-and the families ye work for, will joyfully lend you as many as ye can read. This will improve your own mind and your wife's, and enable you to instruct your children, and watch over their progress, and set them in the road to welldoing after they are done wi' school.' 'Oh, Simon!' he cried, oh, but ye make me a happy man! I think I see them a' ladies and gentlemen already.' Stop, stop; not in such a hurry, my lad. Don't think that can be done but by long and patient toil on your part and theirs. If you expect to improve either your own mind or theirs, you must read fit books; and if you expect to read, you must waste no more time. No more sitting at night in the gentlemen's kitchen, filling your brain with vain follies; no more jawing all the idle lies in the parish at the road sides; no more clubbings in the ale-house to sing wild songs, and keep a batch of blackguards in a roar. That you must give up on many accounts: because it wastes your time-wastes your moneyrenders your mind and feelings perfectly unfit for virtuous pursuits-and bends all the whole man, body and soul, in a direction opposite to that you pretend to be so eager to follow; and, James, I may add - disturbs honest travellers like me, who want a sleep after a long day's journey.'

6

"He coloured over the ears and brow― seemed much confounded at my knowing these things, and very willing to drop the conference: and, to say the truth, so was I; for I could not but discover, in the midst of all the enthusiasm called forth by his interviews with an accomplished family, the want of principle and utter hollowness of his father's son, which made me hopeless of doing him any permanent good. I, however, to the utmost of my power, enforced his spending his evenings in reading, and sending his children to school as soon as they were fit for it; and, on leaving him, my forebodings were not unmingled with some better hopes. It is now several years since my business led me this way; and, in the interval, I have heard nothing of James Barr. But, we are now within a mile of his cottage, and we shall go and see." As we approached the place, everything wore the aspect of desolation, and we did not need to go so far as the door to discover it was deserted. Each object round us betokened this. A window fallen in, and rank weeds waving in its place; a hole in the thatch, long grass, nettles and dockens springing round the step and from under the outer door, told a dismal tale. Simon stopped short, held up his hands in silence; and, after looking at the pitiable wreck before us for a few moments, we turned with a sigh and walked away. The first words he said were, I will go to the schoolmaster; he is my worthy old friend, and was James's teacher; I am sure he will be able to tell us something. A mile farther on, we came within sight of the schoolmaster's house; and it being past school hours, we found him hard at work in his little garden. He received Simon most joyfully, and leaving his spade in the ground, sat down between us on the settle at his

neat, clean door. He was an active, cheerful looking man, above sixty, with a look of ruddy health and vigour in face and person, and such glances of fun and intelligence in his bright eyes as conveyed to me the idea of one who had spent his life in far other occupations than the weary, thankless, soul-consuming drudgery of teaching a parish school. And I could not help wondering what that well-spring of mental and intellectual vitality must originally have been which still sparkled so bright in the wane of life.

After a period of mutual and kind inquiries, Simon told his errand. The schoolmaster's sparkling eyes took a solemn expression. "James Barr!" he repeated, in a tone of wo. "Many chances and changes have occurred in his short life." He then went on to mention, that some years ago James had come to him with two little children to put to school, one of them so young he had refused to take it as a scholar, not only because it could do nothing equivalent to the trouble of teaching it, but it was too little to walk twice a day to and from school; and because it would be far better to let such a child romp about and gain strength, than set it to pine in a crowded room among a swarm of imps all bigger than even the oldest of these. "This," said the schoolmaster, "seemed both to vex and anger him; and he asked with some bitterness, what ill-will this was I had ta'en at his bairn; said he was determined to have her taught immediately, muttered a deal about early education, and the way to make ladies and gentlemen; and that there was a child at the Rockhouse nae bigger than her that could read as weel as I could do, though it had never been at school at all, and that his bairn was as smart as any lord or lady's bairn in the country.

"I considered him intoxicated," continued the schoolmaster; "however, I answered him peaceably, and tried to convince him that it was precisely because the child he mentioned had not been at school that it could read; that children could be taught to read, and to love reading, far earlier than was imagined, if their mothers or other friends did but take the trouble to instruct them, by giving them one letter in a day to amuse them, which could be done without fatigue or confinement; but do you think they would send a little tender infant to a public school to dree out three or four hours a-day, sitting on a high wooden bench surrounded by boisterous boys and girls of fourteen or fifteen years old? 'I will have my bairn educate,' said he in reply, and all my arguing was in vain. The constant burden of all he said was still the Rockhouse and the ladies at the Rockhouse, and their voices, and their language, and their singing, and their learning, and their everything; jumbling up his accounts of them and their accomplishments with his determinations to have his ain lassies educated; and with the most pitiable attempts to speak, as he supposed, like those ladies — which attempts consisted in altering the sound of every word he uttered. I stared at him in consternation, and asked him what the accomplishments of ladies had to do with the education of a ploughman's daughters. He replied, that it was 'idication made liddies, and that it would make his dotters liddies in spite o' me, though they wuz his dotters.' He then broke out into ravings about their beautiful manner of speaking at the Rockhouse, and when they sing-Sing! I repeated, where do you hear thern sing? 'Whan I'm sittin' wi' the lassies and the flunkies at nights, when a door opens, or when I stop at the windows and look in, and I think it maun be like the angels' sangs. But whan I'm coming hame and try to sing mysel', it's like nacthing but my father's auld muckle Dutch bull, that used to fright a' the folk lang syne wi' his fearsome rowtin' and skirls their very speakin's beautifuller than ither folks' music, and I wull gar my ain weans speak as beautiful. They have nae loud speaking, nae passions, and whan ony thing gangs wrang, and I hae provokit them a gay wheen times mysel', though they whiles luk grave, they ne'er say a thrawn word to me.' 'Well, James,' said I, that's a part of their conduct you would do well to imitate;

but as to their speaking and their singing, I do declare, to hear a great broad-shouldered ploughman chield like you, a'maist twa ell and half a quarter lang, thrawing your gab and minching your words, and chowing your ain tongue wi' maunderings and affectations like a drunk baboon, till mortal man canna comprehend what the sorrow ails you, or what ye would be at; in real truth it goes far beyond my patience! and this, it seems, is your trials to imitate the language of a highly accomplished family of ladies! d'ye see there, man, d' ye see how, unkenned to mysel', my hand has drawn the taws frae my pouch, burning to gie you a lethering, as mony a time they've done already; and it's only the presence of your two bairns withholds me from following the impulse, for never did you better deserve a thrashing. What the sorrow sets you to speak ony thing but your ain mother tongue, as a Scotch ploughman should? It has creditably served wiser and better folk than I doubt ye are likely to be-has carried them through the world, and brought them back again wi' honour. My word for 't, an honest Scotch tongue never will disgrace you see that ye dinna disgrace it! But, at ony rate, do n't suppose that because ye 're not speaking Scotch, that ye're speaking ony other; for, as I said before, the gibberish ye're tittering is like naething but the jabberings of a drunk baboon, and will only make people laugh at you, and think ye have run mad. Ye thought when ye tried to sing an imitation of the singing at the Rockhouse, that it was like the rowting o' your father's big bull; and I can assure you for a truth, whether you believe me or no, that if the bull had been such a fule as try 't, his rowting would have been just as like their speaking or singing as yours is. His eyes glared at me with rage, and he stamped on the earth when I said all this, and especially when I warned him on the subject of ever teaching a daughter of his more than to read, write, and sew. James,' said I, 'the cottar who tries to teach his daughter mair, is bringing her up for the devil. As ye value their salvation, bring them up so as to be fit wives for honest men in their own station; and not to be upsetting, drest out, would-be misses, apeing their betters wi' dirty finery, and making themselves the scorn o' rich and puir-impudent cutties, that a man o' sense would warn his son against, and nae fit company for any one better than some blackguard stable boy, or whipper-snapper flunkie." He was furious at me, but could n't help himself, for I keepit my threep, and I keepit my temper. So off he plunged in such a rage that he didna see where he was going, and he knockit owre the bit lassie in the dirt. However, he snatched her up on his arm, and marched on wi' strides like a giant, without halting a moment, while she screight and roared like a sorrow, and the bit callan, unable wi' all his speed to keep up wi' his father, roared to his utmost for company.

"After all this dirdum, I didna expect to see him in a hurry; however, back he came next day, and entered the two poor young things at school. His anger had cooled by that time, and I rather supposed I was right when I suspected he had been drinking the day before. He borrowed a book from me, and said he would soon be back for another, as he was going to read every book in my house. Sooner than I expected, he did bring back the book, which I found he had read attentively, and with great pleasure I gave him another. Meanwhile, the Lammas flood came on, and the bit lassie and her brother were wet to the skin. I did my best to prevent the evil consequences, but day after day they were sent paidlin' thro' rain and roads knee-deep; the girlie took a cold in her chest ; gave her a lesson and sent her home in all haste with a message to her mother, advising that she should give her physic and put her into bed. The poor madman sent her back next day with a right impertinent message about my laziness, and bidding me mind my ain affairs. That night the cold ended in croup, and she was dead in six hours. Poor man, my heart was sore for him then, and

far sorer since, for after that he gaed clean heels owre head wi' madness and vice. It seemed to be anger rather than grief that he felt at the loss of the poor child; and, after having gone about gloomily silent for a few weeks, on a sudden he assumed all the worst of his old habits, went roving to fairs, ranting and singing in public houses, and the cock o' the company wherever there was noise or drinking, to the total neglect of his work. Meanwhile, as the winter advanced, there were many complaints of killing game in my lord's woods and muirs, and bleaching-greens were robbed, and hen-houses were robbed, and gardens were robbed, and no thief ever seen, and no individual ever suspected. Maybe, Simon, you may have heard that Jemmy had long been our precentor; and having a good voice and a good ear, and a good conceit o' himsel', he did very well for our bit kirk. But after this distraction about the Rockhouse, like a possession o' the enemy, had ta'en him by the head, he began to twirl, and pipe, and screw his voice, and his face, and his neck, and his words; supposing, poor man! that he was certainly singing like the ladies there. Gude help him-I wish'd mony a time he had keepit better mind o' his father's auld bull!· for truly the psalmody became anything but a means of devotion. As you may guess, the serious were fretted, and the thoughtless laughed. Still, in spite of all that could be said, he persisted to twirl his whirligigs up and down: considering all the faults that were found as the highest flattery; for he imputed the remarks of his neighbours either to envy, or to his music being so fine they could not understand it. Many a time I saw the pretty young creatures in the Rockhouse pew sair put to, to keep their gravity. But one day, when the minister had been preaching on the providential care of God over his people, he read, as the last Psalm, some verses of the xxxiv. beginning at the eighth verse. James got on as usual, changing the sound of all the vowels into is oees, and everything but their own sound; but the afternoon being dark, and the line to be read, when he reached the tenth verse, he distinctly shouted forth, the lions young may hingry be, and they may lick their fud' which was like an electric shock to most part of the congregation, and the heads of the young things in the Rockhouse pew were instantly out of sight; but a tremulous motion of the feathers and ribbons in their bonnets showed what was going on. I saw James's eye fill with gloomy fire as he turned it in that direction, and there was a vengeful glance shot after them as they left the church, which boded them no good. Not long after this, there were various robberies about their house and garden, but no trace of a thief. Let them watch as they might, still the robberies went on, and they were much perplexed; but they are mild, forbearing people, and said little.

"One morning their only brother, who had been on his travels, partly for health and partly for study, came to see me. I had been his father's early tutor, and it was he who placed me here. They have always been very kind to me, and this dear young man had now returned strong and healthy, improved in body and mind. He had a fine dog along with him, which he had carried from home a puppy. It had been the faithful guard and companion of all his wanderings; and, as such, having always been spoken to as a rational creature, it had actually become so to a degree nearly incredible. Albion,' said my young friend to me, 'made a prisoner last night.' I looked for an explanation, and he told me that having heard of the many peculations that had been committed lately round the house, without informing any person, he had gone out the evening before with his dog, and showed him where he was to watch, and giving him a lair to sleep upon, he left him for the night. Delighted with the beauty of a soft autumnal morning, he had risen with the sun, and without recollecting the office to which he had appointed his dog, had strolled out to take an early walk, and passed into the garden, He saw a countryman sitting on a barrow