t thy side shall stand,
Nor o'er the flower-besprinkled brae
Lead thee the low'nest and the bonniest way.

Dost thou see yon yard sae green,
Spreckled wi' mony a mossy stane?
A few short weeks o' pain shall fly,
An' asleep in that _bed_ shall thy puir brither lie.

Then thy mither's tears awhile
May chide thy joy an' damp thy smile;
But sune ilk grief shall wear awa',
And I'll be forgotten by ane an' by a'.

Dinna think the thought is sad;
Life vexed me aft, but this mak's glad:
When cauld my heart and closed my e'e,
Bonny shall the dreams o' my slumbers be.

At length, however, my constitution threw off the malady; though--as I
still occasionally feel--the organ affected never quite regained its
former vigour; and I began to experience the quiet but exquisite
enjoyment of the convalescent. After long and depressing illness, youth
itself appears to return with returning health; and it seems to be one
of the compensating provisions, that while men of robust constitution
and rigid organization get gradually old in their spirits and obtuse in
their feelings, the class that have to endure being many times sick have
the solace of being also many times young. The reduced and weakened
frame becomes as susceptible of the emotional as in tender and delicate
youth. I know not that I ever spent three happier months than the
autumnal months of this year, when gradually picking up flesh and
strength amid my old haunts, the woods and caves. My friend had left me
early in July for Aberdeen, where he had gone to prosecute his studies
under the eye of a tutor, one Mr. Duncan, whom he described to me in his
letters as perhaps the most deeply learned man he had ever seen. "You
may ask him a common question," said my friend, "without getting an
answer--for he has considerably more than the average absentness of the
great scholar about him; but if you inquire of him the state of any one
controversy ever agitated in the Church or the world, he will give it
you at once, with, if you please, all the arguments on both sides." The
trait struck me at the time as one of some mark; and I thought of it
many years after, when fame had blown the name of my friend's tutor
pretty widely as Dr. Duncan, Hebrew Professor in our Free Church
College, and one of the most profoundly learned of Orientalists. Though
separated, however, from my friend, I found