thing this afternoon."

"What hae you learned, Mither?"

"I hae learned, that when a lass is dying wi' a sair affliction, that
there is parfect salvation in a lad."

It was the evening of the third day ere James Ruleson returned home.
He had met no difficulties with Mrs. Allan Ruleson that were not
easily removed by the gift of a sovereign. And he found the little
lad quietly but anxiously waiting for him. "My feyther whispered
to me that you would come," he said softly, as he snuggled into
James' capacious breast. "I was watching for you, I thought I could
hear your footsteps, after twelve o'clock today they were coming
nearer, and nearer--when you chappit at the door, I knew it was
you--Grandfeyther!" And James held the child tighter and closer in
his arms, and softly stroked the white, thin face that was pressed
against his heart.

"I'm going to tak' you hame to your grandmither, and your aunt
Christine," James whispered to the boy. "You are going to get well
and strong, and big, and learn how to read and write and play,
yoursel', like ither bairns."

"How soon? How soon?"

"Tomorrow."

"I thought God didna know about me. Such long, long days and nights."

"You puir little lad! God knew all the time. It is o'er by now."

"Will it come again?"

"Never! Never again!"

The next day they left Glasgow about the noon hour. The child had no
clothing but an old suit of his elder brother, and it was cold winter
weather. But James made no remark, until he had the boy in the train
for Edinburgh. Then he comforted him with all the kind words he could
say, and after a good supper, they both went early to bed in a small
Edinburgh hostelry.

In the morning, soon after nine o'clock, James took his grandson to a
ready-made tailor's shop, and there he clothed him from head to feet
in a blue cloth suit. From the little white shirt to the little blue
cloth cap on his long fair hair, everything was fit and good, and the
child looked as if he had been touched by a miracle. He was now a
beautiful boy, spiritually frail and fair, almost angelic. Ruleson
looked at him, then he looked at the pile of ragged clothes that had
fallen from his little shrunken form, and he kicked them with his big
feet to the other end of the shop. A thick, warm overcoat, and new
shoes and stockings, were added to the outfit, and then they were
ready for their home train.

As they walked slowly down Prina's Street, they met a regiment of
Highland