black dark to look to the sheep, before lighting his candle he brushed
off from the coverlet a full arm-sweep of powdery snow. It was a sign of
Walter's emancipation from boyhood when he insisted on leaving his
mother's cosy little wall-chamber and climbing up the ladder with the
boys to their "laft" under the eaves. Nevertheless, it went with a
sudden pang to the mother's heart to think that never more should she go
to sleep with her boy clasped in her arms. Such times will come to
mothers, and they must abide them in silence. A yet more bitter tragedy
is when she realises that another woman is before her in her son's
heart.

[Footnote 3: As in Ireland, all the sons of the house are "boys" so long
as they remain under the roof-tree, even though they may carry grey
heads on their shoulders.]

The whole family of Saunders M'Quhirr was collected every Sabbath
morning at the "buik." It was a solemn time. No one was absent, or
could be absent for any purpose whatever. The great Bible, clad
rough-coated in the hairy hide of a calf, was brought down from the
press and laid at the table-end. Saunders sat down before it and bowed
his head. In all the house there was a silence that could be felt. It
was at this time every Sabbath morning that Walter resolved to be a good
boy for the whole week. The psalm was reverently given out, two lines at
a time--

"They in the Lord that firmly trust,
Shall be like Zion hill"--

and sung to the high quavering strains of "Coleshill," garnished with
endless quavers and grace-notes.

The chapter was then read with a simple trust and manfulness like that
of an ancient patriarch. Once at this portion of the service the most
terrible thing that ever happened at Drumquhat took place. Walter had
gone to school during the past year, and had been placed in the
"sixpenny"; but he had promptly "trapped" his way to the head of the
class, and so into the more noble "tenpenny," which he entered before he
was six. The operation of "trapping" was simply performed. When a
mistake was made in pronunciation, repetition, or spelling, any pupil
further down the class held out his hand, snapping the finger and thumb
like a pop-gun Nordenfeldt. The master's pointer skimmed rapidly down
the line, and if no one in higher position answered, the "trapper,"
providing always that his emendation was accepted, was instantly
promoted to the place of the "trapped." The master's "taws" were a
wholesome deterrent