ith rocks and trees bestrewn, dark Loch Maree."--SMALL.

The restorative powers of a constitution which at this time it took much
hard usage to injure, came vigorously into operation on my removal from
the wet ditch and the ruinous hovel; and ere the close of winter I had
got once more into my ordinary state of robust health. I read, wrote,
drew, corresponded with my friend William Ross (who had removed to
Edinburgh), re-examined the Eathie Lias, and re-explored the Eathie
Burn--a noble Old Red Sandstone ravine, remarkable for the wild
picturesqueness of its cliffs and the beauty of its cataracts. I spent,
too, many an evening in Uncle James's workshop, on better terms with
both my uncles than almost ever before--a consequence, in part, of the
sober complexion which, as the seasons passed, my mind was gradually
assuming, and in part, of the manner in which I had completed my
engagement with my master. "Act always," said Uncle James, "as you have
done in this matter. In all your dealings, give your neighbour the _cast
of the bauk_--'good measure, heaped up and running over'--and you will
not lose by it in the end." I certainly did not lose by faithfully
serving out my term of apprenticeship. It is not uninstructive to
observe how strangely the public are led at times to attach paramount
importance to what is in reality only subordinately important, and to
pass over the really paramount without thought or notice. The destiny in
life of the skilled mechanic is much more influenced, for instance, by
his second education--that of his apprenticeship--than by his
first--that of the school; and yet it is to the education of the school
that the importance is generally regarded as attaching, and we never
hear of the other. The careless, incompetent scholar has many
opportunities of recovering himself; the careless, incompetent
apprentice, who either fails to serve out his regular time, or who,
though he fulfils his term, is discharged an inferior workman, has very
few; and further, nothing can be more certain than that inferiority as a
workman bears much more disastrously on the condition of the mechanic
than inferiority as a scholar. Unable to maintain his place among
brother journeymen, or to render himself worthy of the average wages of
his craft, the ill-taught mechanic falls out of regular employment,
subsists precariously for a time on occasional jobs, and either, forming
idle habits, becomes a vagabond _tramper_, or, gett