f to blind folk!"

"It would fit him better," said the Doctor, "if he spent some money on
his daughter. She ought to pass the winter in a warmer locality than
Barbie. The lassie has a poor chest! I told Gourlay, but he only gave a
grunt. And 'oh,' said Mrs. Gourlay, 'it would be a daft-like thing to
send _her_ away, when John maun be weel provided for the College.' D'ye
know, I'm beginning to think there's something seriously wrong with yon
woman's health! She seemed anxious to consult me on her own account, but
when I offered to sound her she wouldn't hear of it. 'Na,' she cried,
'I'll keep it to mysell!' and put her arm across her breast as if to
keep me off. I do think she's hiding some complaint! Only a woman whose
mind was weak with disease could have been so callous as yon about her
lassie."

"Oh, her mind's weak enough," said Sandy Toddle. "It was always that!
But it's only because Gourlay has tyraneezed her verra soul. I'm
surprised, however, that _he_ should be careless of the girl. He was aye
said to be browdened upon _her_."

"Men-folk are often like that about lassie-weans," said Johnny Coe.
"They like well enough to pet them when they're wee, but when once
they're big they never look the road they're on! They're a' very fine
when they're pets, but they're no sae fine when they're pretty misses.
And, to tell the truth, Janet Gourlay's ainything but pretty!"

Old Bleach-the-boys, the bitter dominie (who rarely left the studies in
political economy which he found a solace for his thwarted powers),
happened to be at the Cross that evening. A brooding and taciturn man,
he said nothing till others had their say. Then he shook his head.

"They're making a great mistake," he said gravely, "they're making a
great mistake! Yon boy's the last youngster on earth who should go to
College."

"Ay, man, dominie, he's an infernal ass, is he noat?" they cried, and
pressed for his judgment.

At last, partly in real pedantry, partly with humorous intent to puzzle
them, he delivered his astounding mind.

"The fault of young Gourlay," quoth he, "is a sensory perceptiveness in
gross excess of his intellectuality."

They blinked and tried to understand.

"Ay, man, dominie!" said Sandy Toddle. "That means he's an infernal
cuddy, dominie! Does it na, dominie?"

But Bleach-the-boys had said enough. "Ay," he said dryly, "there's a
wheen gey cuddies in Barbie!" and he went back to his stuffy little room
to study "The Weal