ibly be considered a distinction without a difference; but when you have been introduced into the inner courts of th

employed on what is locally known as 'the Duke's wark,' but in what particular capacity I cannot very well say. When first I knew him he was one of Archie Max

ate his visits, for, though he was a man of few words, and from a story-telling standpoint had little to commend him to a boy, he carried a quiet, companionable

nches as if they were potato-suckers. Sometimes at my request he would lay his long gleaming weapon in the palm of my little hand, but he usually retained possession of it by a slight

r used to say, with a smile, that when Nathan was her guest Betty always put her best foot foremost. Betty, with a blushing cheek, mildly repudiated the charge; an

was served, as Nathan insisted on retaining his soup-plate from which to eat it, and to this Betty strenuously objected. She declared 'it wasna the thing;' but

there, seated on the chopping-log, he smoked his pipe in silence

still-and during the years I spent far from the friends and scenes of my boyhood, as often as I heard the familiar strains of 'The Farmer's Boy,' Betty's timmer rendering came homely-like to my ear, and I saw a p

ke, now covers a chin which once was clean-shaven and ruddy. He still wears leather straps on his workaday trousers; and, though I haven't seen it, I am confident the keen-bladed gully is somewhere about the recesses of his ample pockets. An

otation, I note the 'ripein' oot' of the previous evening's fire, the filling of the kettle from the kitchen tap, the opening and closing of the corner cupboard door, and the clatter of cups, plates, and cutlery.

etising aroma of fried ham and eggs, which has been all the time in my nostrils, gives place to the more pungent smell of strong brown twist smoked through a clean clay pipe. This, however, is merely a whiff in passing, because Nathan 'stands not upon the order of

he wooded recesses of the Gillfoot-each feathered minstrel piping his own song in his own way, and all in unison singing their p?ans of praise in their leafy, sun-kissed bowers. Gossamer-webs, silvered with countless pearls of dew, stretch their glistening threads from leaf to leaf, and cover the shady side of the hawthorn hedgerows as with a gray-meshed silken veil. From rank, dewy grass humble blue-bells raise their heads, and

dener's eye is on the fronded hart's-tongue ferns which here and there peep from the crevices of the lichen-covered dike; by Meadow Bank, where the purple bloom still crowns the spik

ound. As they near the scene of their daily darg, tobacco 'dottles' are paper-padded and made secure, pipes are deposited in sleeved-vest pockets, and where the white iron wicket clicks and admits them to the low-lying stretch of fai

d, steady, and considerate. His wages-to the uttermost farthing-are regularly given up to Betty's safe keeping. All his spare hours are devoted to the large garden, whose produce from January till December makes Betty's daily dinner of the bienest. Her slightest wish is a command which he obeys with cheerfuln

evening, he has only been twice in my room; and on both occasions he stood awkwardly at the door, holding on by the handle, and answering my questions with his head turned toward the landing. During the past week I have managed to limp my way downstairs, and on passing through the kitchen have stayed my steps to ca' the crack with him. But 'Yes, sir,' 'No, sir,' 'Ay, ay; imphm!'

tic window. I have two pots of flowering musk and a lovely pelargonium in full bloom on my sill, and under pretence of

I know he had been sitting in his easy-chair smoking in silence, with his stem-bonnet on and his shirt-sleeves rolled up, inactive, y

ly, I thought, he sat down. I urged him to join me in a smoke, and offered him a fill of my Edinburgh mixture; but he declined my pouch; and, taking out a deersk

ut she plied her needles in silence till N

l of his pipe with a perforated metal cover, 'thae fancy ready-c

y, excuse my asking so personal a question, why do you a

ruck another light when there was no necessity to do so; while Betty laid her knitting

t, I dinna mean it in ony temporal sense, Maister Weelum. So far as this world is concerned, I've

a faint smile on his sober face, and he actually winked. 'She's-she's

d what,

auld subj

concern regairdin' Nathan's welfare in this world. We're promised only bread an' water, an' look hoo often he gets tea an' chops, an' on what we ha'e saved there's every chance o' that diet bein' continued as lang as he has t

us woman, a true disciple of the Great Master, but partaking more of the loving John than the assertive Peter; and, often as I h

essity, sparked another match, and almost succeeded in turning toward

My calling an' election 's sure, an' I juist canna bide the thocht o' us bein' separated at the lang hinner-en'. It's no' that he 's a bad man-far from it. Or it 's no' that he 's careless. I gi'e him credit for bein' concerned in his ain wey; but he juist saunters on through life, trustin' that things will somewey work oot a' richt, an' lettin'

f his attitude toward me were unfounded; and, with a note of encouragement in my voice, I hinted to Betty that, after all, it was possi

ust availeth much; but aye bear in mind-Nathan, are ye listenin'?-Ay-weel, bear in

om his chair, and, turning round, he solemnly winked to me again. That wink somehow sealed a compact between us. I

to gab wark on sic a subject as ye 've ta'en in haun', John Clerk the colporteur canna haud a cannel to ye. When ye stert on me like this I aye gi'e

look, and I nodded and smil

vat at his throat, 'that there 's some truth in a few o' your

Nathan?' she p

e mairret. That's ae thing, onywey. Then we tak' the Beuk regularly; an' forby that, Betty

she raised her voice. 'Nathan Hebron, I'm astonished y

etty?' he gr

at Mrs Kennedy's. Not only did he sleep, but he snored wi' his heid lyin' back an' his face to the ceilin'; an' when he waukened, it was in the middle o' a silent prayer, an' he glimmered an' blinked at the g

ehalf that, as he had been working in the open all day, and the room was q

notice he never dovers, as ye ca

he reached the end of her story, and in his ab

r gane, he sat doon efter his denner wi' a book, an' he looked neither to left nor richt, but read on and on. "Nathan," says I, "what's the book you're sae intent on?" "Oh, Betty," says he glibly, weel kennin' that I didna gi'e in wi' orra readin' on the Lord's Day, "I've faun in wi' a splendid book the day. It's ca'ed Baxter's-eh-Saunts' Everlastin' Rest, an' it's the kind o' readin' I like." "Ay," says I, weel pleased wi' the

Everlasting Rest,

that name; but the paper-covered book that was inside was The Experiences o' an Edinburgh Detective, by James

o the kitchen. Ten minutes later, when I was having my last pipe for the night, I heard her voice raised in the Beuk, and she was read