and heard tell o'!"

So saying, away she would drive, tossing her head wi' the airs o' my
lady. Ye canna conceive, sir, what a teacher has to put up wi'.
Thomson says--

"Delightful task,
To teach the young idea how to shoot!"

I wish to goodness he had tried it, and a month's specimen o' its
_delights_ would have surfeited him, and instead o' what he has
written, he would have said--

"Degrading thought,
To be each snivelling blockhead's parent's slave!"

Now, ye'll remember that Jock was perpetually sniftering and gaping
wi' his mouth, or even sucking his thumb like an idiot. There was nae
keeping the animal cleanly, much less instructing him; and then, if he
had the book in his hand, there he sat staring owre it, wi' a look as
vacant and stupid as a tortoise. Or, if he had the slate before him,
there was he drawing scores on't, or amusing himsel wi' twirling and
twisting the pencil in the string through the frame. Never had I such
a lump o' stupidity within the walls o' my school.

After his leaving me, he was put as an apprentice to a bookseller. I
thought, of all the callings under the sun, that which had been chosen
for him was the least suited to a person o' his capacity. But--would
ye believe it, sir?--Jock surprised us a'. He fairly turned the corner
on a' my calculations. When he began to look after the lassies, he
also began to "smart up." He came to my night-school when he would be
about eighteen, and I was perfectly astonished at the change that had
taken place, even in the appearance o' the callant. His very nose,
which had always been so stuffed and thick like, was now an ornament
to his face. He had become altogether a lively, fine-looking lad; and,
more marvellous still, his whole heart's desire seemed to be to learn;
and he did learn with a rapidity that both astonished and delighted
me. I actually thought the instructions which I had endeavoured to
instil into him for years, and apparently without effect, had been
lying dormant, as it were, in the chambers o' his brain, like a cuckoo
in winter--that they had been sealed up as fast as I imparted them, by
some cause that I did not comprehend, and that now they had got vent,
and were issuing out in rapid and vigorous strength, like a person
refreshed after a sleep.

After he had been two years at the night-school, so far from
considering him a dunce, I regarded him as an amazingly clever lad.
From