f a commentary, failed at last
and flew off into what the said gentleman would have pronounced 'very
dangerous speculation, seeing no man is to go beyond what is written in
the Bible, which contains not only the truth, but the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, for this time and for all future time--both here
and in the world to come.' Some such sentence, at least, was in his
sermon that day, and the preacher no doubt supposed St. Matthew, not St.
Matthew Henry, accountable for its origination. In the Limbo into
which Robert's then spirit flew, it had been sorely exercised about the
substitution of the sufferings of Christ for those which humanity must
else have endured while ages rolled on--mere ripples on the ocean of
eternity.

'Noo, be douce,' said Mrs. Falconer, solemnly, as Robert, a trifle
lighter at heart from the result of his cogitations than usual, sat down
to dinner: he had happened to smile across the table to Shargar. And he
was douce, and smiled no more.

They ate their broth, or, more properly, supped it, with horn spoons, in
absolute silence; after which Mrs. Falconer put a large piece of meat on
the plate of each, with the same formula:

'Hae. Ye s' get nae mair.'

The allowance was ample in the extreme, bearing a relation to her words
similar to that which her practice bore to her theology. A piece of
cheese, because it was the Sabbath, followed, and dinner was over.

When the table had been cleared by Betty, they drew their chairs to
the fire, and Robert had to read to his grandmother, while Shargar sat
listening. He had not read long, however, before he looked up from his
Bible and began the following conversation:--

'Wasna it an ill trick o' Joseph, gran'mither, to put that cup, an' a
siller ane tu, into the mou' o' Benjamin's seck?'

'What for that, laddie? He wanted to gar them come back again, ye ken.'

'But he needna hae gane aboot it in sic a playactor-like gait. He needna
hae latten them awa' ohn tellt (without telling) them that he was their
brither.'

'They had behaved verra ill till him.'

'He used to clype (tell tales) upo' them, though.'

'Laddie, tak ye care what ye say aboot Joseph, for he was a teep o'
Christ.'

'Hoo was that, gran'mither?'

'They sellt him to the Ishmeleets for siller, as Judas did him.'

'Did he beir the sins o' them 'at sellt him?'

'Ye may say, in a mainner, 'at he did; for he was sair afflickit afore
he wan up to be the King's richt han';