ging, and the air like to grow
sick wi' the breath of blooming birks, and flowers of all colours, and
wild-thyme sticking full of bees, humming in joy and thankfulness--Ye
never kent, maister, what it was to wake in the still morning, when,
looking out, ye saw the snaws lying for miles round about ye on the
hills, breast deep, shutting ye out from the world, as it were; the foot
of man never coming during the storm to your door, nor the voice of a
stranger heard from ae month's end till the ither. See, it is coming on
o' hail the now, and my mother with my sister--I have but ane--and my
four brithers, will be looking out into the drift, and missing me away
for the first time frae their fireside. They'll hae a dreary winter o't,
breaking their hearts for me--their ballants and their stories will never
be sae funny again--and my heart is breaking for them."
With this, the tears prap-prapped down his cheeks, but his pride bade him
turn his head round to hide them from me. A heart of stone would have
felt for him.
I saw it was in vain to persist long, as the laddie was falling out of
his clothes as fast as leaves from the November tree; so I wrote home by
limping Jamie the carrier, telling his father the state of things, and
advising him, as a matter of humanity, to take his son out to the free
air of the hills again, as the town smoke did not seem to agree with his
stomach; and, as he might be making a sticked tailor of one who was
capable of being bred a good farmer; no mortal being likely to make a
great progress in any thing, unless the heart goes with the handiwork.
Some folks will think I acted right, and others wrong in this matter; if
I erred, it was on the side of mercy and my conscience does not upbraid
me for the transaction. In due course of time, I had an answer from Mr
Glen; and we got everything ready and packed up, against the hour that
Jamie was to set out again.
Mungo got himself all dressed; and Benjie had taken such a liking to him,
that I thought he would have grutten himself senseless when he heard he
was going away back to his own home. One would not have imagined, that
such a sincere friendship could have taken root in such a short time; but
the bit creature Benjie was as warm-hearted a callant as ye ever saw.
Mungo told him, that if he would not cry he would send him in a present
of a wee ewe-milk cheese whenever he got home; which promise pacified
him, and he asked me if Benjie would co
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