ys he is glad he wasna judge, because he would have had to give
you the prize, and he laughs like to split at the ministers for giving
it to Lauchlan McLauchlan."

Now, great was the repute of Mr. Ogilvy, and Tommy gaped incredulous.
"He had no word of that at the time," he said.

"No likely! He says if the ministers was so doited as to think his loon
did best, it wasna for him to conter them."

"Man, Corp, you ca'me me aff my feet! How do you ken this?"

Corp had promised not to tell, and he thought he did not tell, but Tommy
was too clever for him. Grizel, it appeared, had heard Mr. Ogilvy saying
this strange thing to the doctor, and she burned to pass it on to Tommy,
but she could not carry it to him herself, because--Why was it? Oh, yes,
because she hated him. So she made a messenger of Corp, and warned him
against telling who had sent him with the news.

Half enlightened, Tommy began to strut again. "You see there's something
in me for all they say," he told Elspeth. "Listen to this. At the
bursary examinations there was some English we had to turn into Latin,
and it said, 'No man ever attained supreme eminence who worked for mere
lucre; such efforts must ever be bounded by base mediocrity. None shall
climb high but he who climbs for love, for in truth where the heart is,
there alone shall the treasure be found.' Elspeth, it came ower me in a
clink how true that was, and I sat saying it to myself, though I saw Gav
Dishart and Willie Simpson and the rest beginning to put it into Latin
at once, as little ta'en up wi' the words as if they had been about auld
Hannibal. I aye kent, Elspeth, that I could never do much at the
learning, but I didna see the reason till I read that. Syne I kent that
playing so real-like in the Den, and telling about my fits when it wasna
me that had them but Corp, and mourning for Lewis Doig's father, and
writing letters for folk so grandly, and a' my other queer ploys that
ended in Cathro's calling me Sentimental Tommy, was what my heart was
in, and I saw in a jiffy that if thae things were work, I should soon
rise to supreme eminence."

"But they're no," said Elspeth, sadly.

"No," he admitted, his face falling, "but, Elspeth, if I was to hear
some day of work I could put my heart into as if it were a game! I
wouldna be laug in finding the treasure syne. Oh, the blatter I would
make!"

"I doubt there's no sic work," she answered, but he told her not to be
so sure. "I thought there