of the policy of Hermiston, where you come suddenly in view of the

summit of Black Fell, sometimes like the mere grass top of a hill,

sometimes (and this is her own expression) like a precious jewel in the

heavens. On such days, upon the sudden view of it, her hand would

tighten on the child's fingers, her voice rise like a song. "I TO THE

HILLS!" she would repeat. "And O, Erchie, are nae these like the hills

of Naphtali?" and her tears would flow.

Upon an impressionable child the effect of this continual and pretty

accompaniment to life was deep. The woman's quietism and piety passed

on to his different nature undiminished; but whereas in her it was a

native sentiment, in him it was only an implanted dogma. Nature and the

child's pugnacity at times revolted. A cad from the Potterrow once

struck him in the mouth; he struck back, the pair fought it out in the

back stable lane towards the Meadows, and Archie returned with a

considerable decline in the number of his front teeth, and

unregenerately boasting of the losses of the foe. It was a sore day for

Mrs. Weir; she wept and prayed over the infant backslider until my lord

was due from Court, and she must resume that air of tremulous composure

with which she always greeted him. The judge was that day in an

observant mood, and remarked upon the absent teeth.

"I am afraid Erchie will have been fechting with some of they blagyard

lads," said Mrs. Weir.

My lord's voice rang out as it did seldom in the privacy of his own

house. "I'll have norm of that, sir!" he cried. "Do you hear me? -

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