sooth worth his finding out. One can hardly believe that it should have
been to the schoolmaster the first revelation of the fact that a
practical interest is the strongest incitement to a theoretical
acquaintance. But such was the case. He answered after a moment's
pause--

"I suspect, ma'am, on the contrary, that the boat, of which I had heard
nothing till now, was Alec's private tutor in the passage of Virgil to
which I have referred."

"I don't understand you, Mr Malison."

"I mean, ma'am, that his interest in his boat made him take an interest
in those lines about ships and their rigging. So the boat taught him to
translate them."

"I see, I see."

"And that makes me doubt, ma'am, whether we shall be able to make him
learn anything to good purpose that he does not take an interest in."

"Well, what _do_ you think he is fit for, Mr Malison? I should like him
to be able to be something else than a farmer, whatever he may settle
down to at last."

Mrs Forbes thought, whether wisely or not, that as long as she was able
to manage the farm, Alec might as well be otherwise employed. And she
had ambition for her son as well. But the master was able to make no
definite suggestion. Alec seemed to have no special qualification for
any profession; for the mechanical and constructive faculties had alone
reached a notable development in him as yet. So after a long talk, his
mother and the schoolmaster had come no nearer than before to a
determination of what he was fit for. The interview, however, restored
a good understanding between them.

CHAPTER XXV.

It was upon a Friday night that the frost finally broke up. A day of
wintry rain followed, dreary and depressing. But the two boys, Alec
Forbes and Willie Macwha, had a refuge from the _ennui_ commonly
attendant on such weather, in the prosecution of their boat-building.
Hence it came to pass that in the early evening of the following
Saturday, they found themselves in close consultation in George
Macwha's shop, upon a doubtful point involved in the resumption of
their labour. But they could not settle the matter without reference to
the master of the mystery, George himself, and were, in the mean time,
busy getting their tools in order--when he entered, in conversation
with Thomas Crann the mason, who, his bodily labours being quite
interrupted by the rain, had the more leisure apparently to bring his
mental powers to bear upon the condition of his nei