e is any native shrewdness and
strength of mind, these higher gifts are quickly discerned, and add
greatly to the influence which sincerity and earnestness of character
will ever command. In Scotland this is especially true, for the
countrymen of Bruce and Wallace are distinguished for their sagacity;
and their acquaintance with Scripture is so extensive that their natural
intelligence is sharpened, and superficial knowledge and flowery
discourses are not tolerated from the pulpit. Certain it is, that as
years rolled on, and the white hairs became thicker on Mr. Roscoe's
head, love and veneration were the universal feelings entertained toward
him: and at the time when our story commences, when the infant Margaret
and her young widowed mother removed beneath the shelter of his roof, he
was the respected pastor, the beloved friend, and the revered father of
all within the circle of his influence.

Malcom Roscoe, Margaret's father, was a young man of superior abilities,
but of great original delicacy of constitution; he was retiring,
studious, meditative, and in all respects a contrast to his older and
only brother, Alan, who early developed those qualities which are
necessary to the active man of business. A very warm attachment united
these two young men, and a sad blow it was to Malcom, when his brother,
with the energy and decision natural to his character, announced his
intention of emigrating to America, where bright prospects had opened
before him. An old friend had commenced a large commercial establishment
in one of the Atlantic cities, and had offered him a clerkship, with the
prospect of speedy admission into the firm: he regretted to leave his
aged father, and his only brother, but such an excellent opportunity of
advancing himself in life was not to be neglected, and he gratefully
accepted the proposition. With many tears, he bade adieu to the beloved
inmates of the manse, and set out for the New World: his industry and
integrity had been greatly prospered, and in a few years he was an
honored partner of the house into which he had entered as a penniless
clerk.

What, meantime, had been Malcom's lot? He had applied himself with
assiduity to the study of divinity, for which both his character and his
abilities had admirably fitted him, but his health was unequal to the
demands made upon it. He passed his examination with great honor, was
immediately called to a parish, and went there to settle, accompanied by