Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush

in a lawyer's office, is clerk, and summons meetings by post, although he sees every member at the market or the kirk. Minutes are read with much solemnity, and motions to expend

referred freely on market days to his "plumpers," but as

thro' his facin's, and maybe some bit lassie brocht her copybuke. Syne they had their dinner, and Domsie tae, wi' the Doctor. Man, a've often thocht it was the prospeck o' the Schule Board and its weary bit rules that feenished Domsie. He wasna maybe sae shairp at the elements as this pirjinct

d "Drumtochty," written by the Muirtown architect, describing the whole premises in technical language that seemed to compensate the ratepayers for the cost, mentioning the contractor's name, and concluding that "this handsome building of the Scoto-Grecian style was one of the finest works that had ever come from the accompl

osy sonsie bairns in the wood, and from the door in the afternoon to watch the schule skail till each group was lost in the kindly shadow, and the merry shouts died away in this quiet place. Then the Dominie took a pinch of snuff and locked the door, and went to his house beside the school. One evening I came on him listening bare-headed to the voices, and he showed so kindly that I shall take him as he stands. A man of middle height, but stooping below it, with sandy hair turning to grey, and bushy eye-brow covering keen, shrewd grey eyes. You will notice that his linen is coarse but spotless, and that, though his clothes are worn almost threadbare, they are well brushed and orderly. But you will be chiefly arrested by the Dominie's coat, for the like of it was not in the parish. It was a black dress coat, and no man knew when it had begun i

unheeded. The fireplace was at the other end, and was fed in winter with the sticks and peats brought by the scholars. On one side Domsie sat with the half-dozen lads he hoped to send to college, to whom he grudged no labour, and on the other gathered the very little ones, who used to warm their bare feet at the fire, while down the sides of the room the other scholars sat at their rough old

ment, and it was not his blame if the embryo scholar did not come to birth. "Five and thirty years have I been minister at Drumtochty," the Doctor used to say at school examinations, "and we have never wanted a student at the University, and while Dominie Jamieson lives we never shall." Whereupon Domsie took snuff, and assigned his share of credit to th

he had been pleasantly called by his companions, was rescued from ridicule and encouraged to fulfil his bent. Once a year a long letter came to Mr. Patrick Jamieson, M.A., Schoolmaster, Drumtochty, N.B., and the address within was the British Mus

aw the identification of George Howe. For a winter Domsie had been "at point," racing George through Caesar, stalking him behind irregular verbs, baiting traps with tit-bits of Virgil. During these exercises Domsie surveyed Georg

!" cried Domsie aloud

ll yir father that I a

cht on a bit

was marked for college, and pelted him w

orely, to whom Geordie had told wondrous things in the milk-house. "It canna

exhaustion, "for he hes some Perthshire reds himsel'. I doot it's

nd gettin' ma paiks for birdnestin' ma

naither the ae thing nor the ither, but something I've been prayin' for since Geordie was a wee bairn. Clean

vements and many pauses, and it was our custom to handl

t of George, but it was clear that Domsie was charged with something weighty, and

nd looked at Marget, who had been i

fine laddie

euch, if he hed grace in his heart," in a tone that implied it was extremely unlikely, and that

d the Dominie dropped the words slowl

college, and if Domsie approved a lad, then his brothers and sisters would give their

at his wife and

seein' Geordie a

means though; the farm is highly rented, and the

can do. If he disappoint you, then I dinna know a la

orge a minister, and if the Almichty spared me to hear ma only bairn open his mooth i

he asked, and he ro

get to college, then

y ... ye 'ill manage h

I haena a steek (stitch) o' new claithes for four y

y George's fees without missing a pe

ir kirk, Sabbath past a week, when Netherton's sister's son frae Edinboro' wes preaching the missionary sermon, expectin' a note, and if he

past, and her eyes had a tender light. "H

e conduct of Piggie Walker, who bought Drumsheugh's potatoes and went into bankruptcy without paying for a single tuber, ha

ed as a risky turnip crop in a stiff clay that Domsie

id his first parallel with a glowing account of

o' Marget Hoo's son; there's naething

notes oot o' me at Perth market Martinmas a year past for ane o' yir college laddies. Five punds for four years; my word, yir no blate (

craft, but the spirit of the Humanists awoke within him, and he smote with all his

ie Hoo, ye wud hae twa rewards nae man could tak fra ye. Ane wud be the honest gratitude o' a laddie whose desire for knowledge ye hed sateesfied, and the second wud be this-anither scholar in the land; and a'm thinking with auld John Knox that ilka scholar is something added to the riches of the commonwealth. And what 'ill it cost ye? Little mair than the price o' a cattle beast. Man, Drumsheugh, ye pover

or taste, and was half way doon the yaird afore I cud quiet him. An' a'm no sayin' he hed na reason if I'd been meanin' a' I said. It wud be a scan'al to the

k, that he explained to Hillocks on the way home that Drumsheugh would be a credit to Drumtochty, and that his Latin style reminded him of