d
upon him, he did not appear to advantage. He was so intensely angry
and so apprehensive of the consequences of the disaster that he was
scarcely coherent, and this justified the attendants in their view of
the situation.

The Governor had already been prejudiced against him, when Farquharson
at last obtained an interview with him, and took the same view as the
others. The fact of his having given the return ticket to McConnachie
made it difficult to explain that the other had no right to it; the
faint glimmer of a smile on the face of the attendant while he was
attempting to clear up that point filled poor Farquharson with dismay
and rendered him still more nervous and excited.

So the poor schoolmaster was detained in the Asylum and old McConnachie
returned home in state. All was put right in a day or two, for the
Inspector was informed of the turn affairs had taken, and lost no time
in releasing Farquharson. The unfortunate man did not dare to return
to the district for some time. When he at last ventured to appear,
McConnachie had long left the place and was dead and almost forgotten,
and neighbors were too glad to welcome Farquharson back among them to
remind him of his humiliation.

"Things is gey different now, sir," was Willy's summing-up on the
subject of education. "The bairns get mair teechin' noo, and less o'
the beltin', an' I'm no sure but they learn a' the better for it!"

VI

BILDY

"'Tis not the whole of life to live;
Nor all of death to die."
(_Montgomery--"Issues of Life and Death"_)

Old Widow Lamont and her spinster daughter, Robina, lived in a bit of a
house on the edge of the pine wood that sheltered our presbytery from
the east winds; they were consequently our nearest neighbors with the
exception of Willy and Bell. They possessed a cow and a few hens, and
Robina, who was a sturdy woman of forty, did the work of their small
croft with occasional help from one of the males of the community. For
in Ardmuirland, be it known, one neighbor helps another in return for
the like service when required; thus Robina would lend a hand at
hay-time, harvest, potato planting, and the rest, and would be entitled
to a few days' plowing and harrowing on her own land in compensation.

The Lamonts, though not exceedingly poor, could not be called
well-to-do. The absence of a resident man in a small croft must be of
necessity a difficulty; but they were upright, hard-worki