umber, from which
all Cameron's prods and kicks failed to arouse him till the grey dawn
once more summoned him to life, whereupon, resuming the aforesaid
nether garments, he was once more simply, but in his opinion quite
sufficiently, equipped for his place among men. Many nights did it
happen that the stertorous melody of Webster's all too odourous slumbers
drove Cameron to find a bed upon the floor. Once again Tim was his
friend, for it was to Tim that Cameron owed the blissful experience of a
night in the hay loft upon the newly harvested hay. There, buried in
its fragrant depths and drawing deep breaths of the clean unbreathed air
that swept in through the great open barn doors, Cameron experienced
a joy hitherto undreamed of in association with the very commonplace
exercise of sleep. After his first night in the hay mow, which he shared
with Tim, he awoke refreshed in body and with a new courage in his
heart.

"By Jove, Tim! That's the finest thing I ever had in the way of sleep.
Now if we only had a tub."

"Tub! What for?"

"A dip, my boy, a splash."

"To wash in?" enquired Tim, wondering at the exuberance of his friend's
desires. "I'll get a tub," he added, and, running to the house, returned
with wash tub and towel.

"Tim, my boy, you're a jewel!" exclaimed Cameron.

From the stable cistern they filled the vessel full and first Cameron
and, after persuasion and with rather dubious delight, Tim tasted the
joy of a morning tub. Henceforth life became distinctly more endurable
to Cameron.

But, more than all the other irritating elements in his environment
put together, Cameron chafed under the unceasing rasp of Perkins' wit,
clever, if somewhat crude and cumbrous. Perkins had never forgotten nor
forgiven his defeat at the turnip-hoeing, which he attributed chiefly to
Cameron. His gibes at Cameron's awkwardness in the various operations
on the farm, his readiness to seize every opportunity for ridicule, his
skill at creating awkward situations, all these sensibly increased the
wear on Cameron's spirit. All these, however, Cameron felt he could put
up with without endangering his self-control, but when Perkins, with
vulgar innuendo, chaffed the farmer's daughter upon her infatuation
for the "young Scotty," as he invariably designated Cameron, or when
he rallied Cameron upon his supposed triumph in the matter of Mandy's
youthful affections, then Cameron raged and with difficulty kept his
hands from his chee