aced her hand upon his shoulder, and, gazing anxiously
in his face, said--

"And Alexander still loves me--even in death!"

"Yes, dearest--yes!" he replied. But she had scarce heard his answer,
and returned it with a smile of happiness, when her head sank upon
his bosom, and a deep sigh escaped from hers. It was her last. Her
soul seemed only to have lingered till her eyes might look on him. She
was removed a corpse from his breast; but on that breast the weight of
death was still left. He became melancholy--his ambition died--she
seemed to have been the only object that stimulated him to pursue fame
and to seek for fortune. In intense study he sought to forget his
grief--or rather he made them companions--till his health broke under
them; and in the thirtieth year of his age died one who possessed
talents and learning that would have adorned his country, and rendered
his name immortal. Such, sir, is the brief history o' yer auld
class-fellow, Solitary Sandy.

In the history o'

GLAIKIT WILLIE

(continued Mr Grierson), the only thing remarkable is, that he has
been as fortunate a man as he was a thochtless laddie. After leaving
the school, he flung his Greek and Latin aside, and that was easily
done, for it was but little that he ever learned, and less that he
remembered, for he paid so little attention to onything he did, that
what he got by heart one day, he forgot the next. In spite o' the
remonstrances o' his friends, naething would haud Willie but he would
be a sailor. Weel, he was put on board o' an American trader, and for
several years there was naething heard o' concerning him, but
accidents that had happened him, and all through his glaikitness.
Sometimes he was fa'ing owre a boat, and was mostly drowned; and at
ither times, we heard o' him fa'ing headlong into the ship's hold;
ance o' his tumbling overboard in the middle o' the great Atlantic;
and at last, o' his fa'ing from the mast upon the deck, and having his
legs broken. It was the luckiest thing that ever happened him. It
brought him to think, and gied him leisure to do it; he was laid up
for twelve weeks, and, during part o' the time, he applied himself to
navigation, in the elements o' which science I had instructed him.
Soon after his recovery, he got the command o' a vessel, and was very
fortunate, and, for several years, he has been sole owner of a number
of vessels, and is reputed to be very rich. He also married weel, as
the phrase runs,