eyes the joy at his coming chased the look of pain
and weariness.

As for the friendship which grew more slowly, but quite as surely,
between John and the elder boys of the manse, it cannot be said whether
he or they benefited most by it. To Robin and Jack, John seemed a far
wiser and stronger man than he knew himself to be--a man of wider
experience, higher aims, and firmer purpose. And their belief in him,
their silent yet evident admiration of all his words and ways, their
perfect trust in his discretion and sympathy, did as much for him as for
them, and helped him to strive for the attainment of all the good gifts
which they believed him to possess.

He helped them in many ways. He helped them at their work and kept them
back from taking part in many a "ploy," which, though only foolish, and
not so very wrong, were still both foolish and wrong to them, because in
engaging in them they would waste their time, and--being the minister's
sons--set a bad example to the rest of the lads, and, worst of all, vex
their father and their mother. And they could bear to be restrained by
him, because, in the carrying out of all harmless fun, they profited by
many a hint from John, and sometimes even by his help. But they all
agreed that the less said about this matter among the neighbours the
better for all concerned.

John had been in Nethermuir several months before he saw the inside of
the little kirk. He knew little about the folk who worshipped there,
except that they were said to be "a queer kin' o' folk, who set
themselves up as better than their neebors, and wiser than a' their
teachers." Differing, as they seemed to do, both in preaching and in
practice, from the kirk of the nation, they were doubtless wrong,
thought John. But whatever they were, they were folk in whom he took no
interest, and with whom he had nothing at all to do. So when he had
gone to the kirk at all, he had gone to the parish kirk to please his
mother, who was not always able to go so far herself. Sometimes he had
permitted himself to go even farther than the kirk, coming back when the
service was half over to sit for a while on a fallen headstone, as
Allison did afterward when her turn came.

On fine days his mother went with him, and then it was different. He
sat with the rest and listened to what the minister had to say, with no
inclination to find fault. Indeed there was no fault to be found from
John's point of view or from the