ion, and sentenced to suffer the penalty of his crime upon the
spot where he stabbed Peter Fae. For some time he sulkily rejected all
John's efforts to mitigate his present condition, or to prepare him
for his future. But at last the tender spot in his heart was found.
John discovered his affection for his half-savage mother, and promised
to provide for all her necessities.

"It's only ta poun' o' taa, an' ta bit cabin ta shelter her she'll
want at a'," but the tears fell heavily on the red, hairy hands; "an'
she'll na tell her fat ill outsent cam to puir Sandy."

"Thou kens I will gie her a' she needs, an' if she chooses to come to
Orkney--"

"Na, na, she wullna leave ta Hieland hills for naught at a'."

"Then she shall hae a siller crown for every month o' the year,
Sandy."

The poor, rude creature hardly knew how to say a "thanks;" but John
saw it in his glistening eyes and heard it in the softly-muttered
words, "She was ta only are tat e'er caret for Santy Beg."

It was a solemn day in Stromness when he went to the gallows. The
bells tolled backward, the stores were all closed, and there were
prayers both in public and private for the dying criminal. But few
dared to look upon the awful expiation, and John spent the hour in
such deep communion with God and his own soul that its influence
walked with him to the end of life.

And when his own sons were grown up to youths, one bound for the sea
and the other for Marischal College, Aberdeen, he took them aside and
told them this story, adding,

"An' know this, my lads: the shame an' the sorrow cam a' o' ane
thing--I made light o' my mother's counsel, an' thought I could do
what nane hae ever done, gather mysel' with the deil's journeymen, an'
yet escape the wages o' sin. Lads! lads! there's nae half-way house
atween right and wrang; know that."

"But, my father," said Hamish, the younger of the two, "thou did at
the last obey thy mother."

"Ay, ay, Hamish; but mak up thy mind to this: it isna enough that a
man rins a gude race; he maun also _start at the right time_. This is
what I say to thee, Hamish, an' to thee, Donald: fear God, an' ne'er
lightly heed a gude mother's advice. It's weel wi' the lads that carry
a mother's blessing through the warld wi' them."

Lile Davie.

LILE DAVIE.

In Yorkshire and Lancashire the word "lile" means "little," but in the
Cumberland dales it has a far wider and nobler definition. There it is
a term of ho