ater, laying hands on sand and cliff with a
solemn voice in storm-time; and in the gentle weather moving men to
thoughts of equity. This, as well, is full of food; being two-thirds of
the world, and reserved for devouring knowledge; by the time the sons
of men have fed away the dry land. Yet before the land itself has
acknowledged touch of man, upon one in a hundred acres; and before one
mile in ten thousand of the exhaustless ocean has ever felt the plunge
of hook, or combing of the haul-nets; lo, we crawl, in flocks together
upon the hot ground that stings us, even as the black grubs crowd upon
the harried nettle! Surely we are too much given to follow the tracks of
each other.

However, for a moralist, I never set up, and never shall, while common
sense abides with me. Such a man must be very wretched in this pure
dearth of morality; like a fisherman where no fish be; and most of us
have enough to do to attend to our own morals. Enough that I resolved
to go; and as Lorna could not come with me, it was even worse than
stopping. Nearly everybody vowed that I was a great fool indeed, to
neglect so rudely--which was the proper word, they said--the pushing
of my fortunes. But I answered that to push was rude, and I left it to
people who had no room; and thought that my fortune must be heavy, if it
would not move without pushing.

Lorna cried when I came away (which gave me great satisfaction), and she
sent a whole trunkful of things for mother and Annie, and even Lizzie.
And she seemed to think, though she said it not, that I made my own
occasion for going, and might have stayed on till the winter. Whereas
I knew well that my mother would think (and every one on the farm the
same) that here I had been in London, lagging, and taking my pleasure,
and looking at shops, upon pretence of King's business, and leaving the
harvest to reap itself, not to mention the spending of money; while all
the time there was nothing whatever, except my own love of adventure
and sport, to keep me from coming home again. But I knew that my coat
of arms, and title, would turn every bit of this grumbling into fine
admiration.

And so it fell out, to a greater extent than even I desired; for all
the parishes round about united in a sumptuous dinner, at the Mother
Melldrum inn--for now that good lady was dead, and her name and face
set on a sign-post--to which I was invited, so that it was as good as a
summons. And if my health was no better nex