The Standard Bearer

es had died just when the blast was strongest, and for a while it looked as if his brother would be the worst of the two. But because he wished well t

ful years, come life or death, I was determined to stand in the forefront and hold up again the banner which had been d

and I asked of him a wage to be spen

oking, as he well might, no little astonished.

t I know not. But nevertheless I ha

into the matter and gr

ou shall, Quintin!" crie

nding as was his custom with his hands deep in the long side flaps of his waistcoat. Then he showed how hard it was to become

itting nor yet any such blessing in flocks a

etermined in her own way!" cri

t mention those other lads, because not one

laughed

usin, the goodly minister, what books are best fitted for a lad who desires to seek learning and college breeding. And in the meantime the laddie has aye his Bible. I mind what good Master Rutherford said when he was in Anwoth: 'If so be ye want

e Gilbert Semple, the carrier, brought me from Edinburgh certain other volumes-some of Latin and Greek grammar, with one or two in the mathematics which were a sore puzzle and heartbreak to me, till there came among us one of the H

e career than the sheep-herding on the hills of Kells could afford. And in this my mother supported me. Hob and David also, though they desired not

s I lay prone kicking my heels to some dyke-back with my Latin grammar unde

bit," he

of the syntax in the Latin tongue, according to the Dutch pronunciat

ff, Hob would listen with an air of infinite satisfacti

hat! Like 'And the Lord said unto Moses' in the Bo

ould read to the foot

ment to digest his m

er what lear ye can out of your books. I wi

could be heard muttering, "Penna, a pen; pennae, of a pen." And our David, slinking sulkily in at a wolf-lope from his night-raking among the Glenkens lasses, would sometimes bid him to be sil

try. And with the state of things in Scotland, indeed, I myself saw none. Nevertheless, I had it in me to try. And

ng to the dot of an "i" with a gun and a pistol, the broad sword and the small sword, having no mer

as like that ye will need to lead a charge with Richard Cameron, as that

him with some verbal quib, which as soon as it pierced his thick skull would make him laugh so long and so loudly that the lesson sto

"I also would ask you one thing, Hob, and if you tell me withou

eager eye at the waist-leather

advantage over the l

it over mos

e said at last. "

because when I play back-sword with you I can change m

of worship in the kitchen, and in the midst of the solemnity he laughed aloud, whereat my fa

and his midriff; "he told me that when I played back-sword wit

ith cold suspicion, for I had been sitt

when we were playing at back

ll breakfastless, and come not in till ye have le

8} and went obediently, smothering his bel

sheep-buchts, when I went out with

nswer came upon me suddenly, and in truth it was a proper jest-for,