-when he could get out of the groove into which it would have
perhaps been better that he had never put himself, all would be as it
had been before. And said he grimly:

"If the worse comes to the worst, I can but fall to breaking stones
again."

It ended, as it generally does end, when a man sets himself to do the
work of two men, or to do in six months the work of twelve, in order to
gratify a vain ambition, or to lighten a heavy heart. It took no more
than a slight cold, so it was thought to be at first, to bring the
struggle to an end, and the work of the winter.

There was a night or two of feverish restlessness, of "tossing to and
fro until the dawning of the day," a day or two of effort to seem well,
and to do his work as usual, and then Doctor Fleming was sent for. It
cannot be said that there ever came a day when the doctor could not,
with a good conscience, say to John's mother, that he did not think her
son was going to die; but he was very ill, and he was long ill. The
college halls were closed, and all the college lads had gone to their
homes before John was able, leaning on Robert's arm, to walk to the
corner of the street; and it may be truly said, that the worst time of
all came to him after that.

He had no strength for exertion of any kind; and worse than that, he had
no motive, and in his weakness he was most miserable. It was a change
he needed, they all knew, and when the days began to grow long and warm,
something was said about returning to Nethermuir for a while.

"To Nethermuir, and the lanes where Allison used to go up and down with
little Marjorie in her arms, to the kirk where she used to sit; to the
hills which hid the spot where his eyes first lighted on her!"

No, John could not go there. He had got to the very depths of weakness
when it came to that with him--and of self-contempt.

"There is no haste about it, mother," said he. "The garden? Yes, but I
could do nothing in it yet. Let us bide where we are for a little."

Robert, who had refused to leave while John needed him, went home now,
and Mr Hume came in for a day. Robert had "had his own thoughts" for a
good while, indeed ever since the day when John had gone to his morning
walk without him; but Robert had been discreet, and had kept his
thoughts to himself for the most part. During John's illness the lad
had been about his bed by night and by day, and he had now and then
heard words which moved him greatly--broken