ca' her aye, efter the new fashion--to hear her speyk English, that was
sweet to the ear; for the braid Scotch she kent as little o' as I do o'
the Erse. It was hert's care aboot him that shortent her days. And a'
that'll be laid upo' him. He'll hae 't a' to beir an' accoont for. Och
hone! Och hone! Eh! Robert, my man, be a guid lad, an' serve the Lord
wi' a' yer hert, an' sowl, an' stren'th, an' min'; for gin ye gang
wrang, yer ain father 'll hae to beir naebody kens hoo muckle o' the
wyte o' 't, for he's dune naething to bring ye up i' the way ye suld
gang, an' haud ye oot o' the ill gait. For the sake o' yer puir father,
haud ye to the richt road. It may spare him a pang or twa i' the ill
place. Eh, gin the Lord wad only tak me, and lat him gang!'

Involuntarily and unconsciously the mother's love was adopting the hope
which she had denounced in her grandson. And Robert saw it, but he was
never the man when I knew him to push a victory. He said nothing. Only a
tear or two at the memory of the wayworn man, his recollection of whose
visit I have already recorded, rolled down his cheeks. He was at such a
distance from him!--such an impassable gulf yawned between them!--that
was the grief! Not the gulf of death, nor the gulf that divides hell
from heaven, but the gulf of abjuration by the good because of his evil
ways. His grandmother, herself weeping fast and silently, with scarce
altered countenance, took her neatly-folded handkerchief from her
pocket, and wiped her grandson's fresh cheeks, then wiped her own
withered face; and from that moment Robert knew that he loved her.

Then followed the Sabbath-evening prayer that she always offered
with the boy, whichever he was, who kept her company. They knelt down
together, side by side, in a certain corner of the room, the same, I
doubt not, in which she knelt at her private devotions, before going to
bed. There she uttered a long extempore prayer, rapid in speech, full of
divinity and Scripture-phrases, but not the less earnest and simple, for
it flowed from a heart of faith. Then Robert had to pray after her, loud
in her ear, that she might hear him thoroughly, so that he often felt as
if he were praying to her, and not to God at all.

She had begun to teach him to pray so early that the custom reached
beyond the confines of his memory. At first he had had to repeat the
words after her; but soon she made him construct his own utterances,
now and then giving him a sugge