The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Right Stuff, by Ian Hay

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Title: The Right Stuff
Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton

Author: Ian Hay

Release Date: March 25, 2007 [EBook #20904]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIGHT STUFF ***

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"The Right Stuff"

Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton

BY

IAN HAY

DR JOHNSON. Oatmeal, sir? The food of horses in England and of men in
Scotland!

BOSWELL (_roused at last_). And where, sir, will you find such
horses--or such men?

_SHILLING EDITION_

William Blackwood & Sons
Edinburgh and London
1912

_TO_

_AN INDULGENT CRITIC_

CONTENTS.

BOOK ONE.

RAW MATERIAL.

CHAP.

I. "OATMEAL AND THE SHORTER CATECHISM"
II. INTRODUCES A PILLAR OF STATE AND THE APPURTENANCES THEREOF
III. "ANENT"
IV. A TRIAL TRIP
V. ROBIN ON DUTY
VI. ROBIN OFF DUTY
VII. A DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP
VIII. OF A PIT THAT WAS DIGGED, AND WHO FELL INTO IT
IX. THE POLICY OF THE CLOSED DOOR
X. ROBIN'S WAY OF DOING IT

BOOK TWO.

THE FINISHED ARTICLE.

XI. A MISFIRE
XII. THE COMPLEAT ANGLER
XIII. A HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE
XIV. "TO DIE--WILL BE AN _AWFULLY_ BIG ADVENTURE"
XV. TWO BATTLES
XVI. "_QUI PERD, GAGNE_"
XVII. IN WHICH ALL'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD
XVIII. A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY

BOOK ONE.

RAW MATERIAL.

CHAPTER ONE.

OATMEAL AND THE SHORTER CATECHISM.

The first and most-serious-but-one ordeal in the life of Robert Chalmers
Fordyce--so Robert Chalmers himself informed me years afterwards--was
the examination for the Bursary which he gained at Edinburgh University.
A bursary is what an English undergraduate would call a "Schol."
(Imagine a Scottish student talking about a "Burse"!)

Robert Chalmers Fordyce arrived in Edinburgh pretty evenly divided
between helpless stupefaction at the sight of a great city and stern
determination not to be imposed upon by the inhabitants thereof. His
fears were not as deep-seated as those of Tom Pinch on a similar
occasion,--he,