le on the Sabbath: he would not willingly anger the powers
above; but it was sometimes a sore temptation, especially after he got
possession of old Mr. Falconer's wonderful instrument.

'Hoots, man!' he would say to Robert; 'dinna han'le, her as gin she war
an egg-box. Tak haud o' her as gin she war a leevin' crater. Ye maun
jist straik her canny, an' wile the music oot o' her; for she's like
ither women: gin ye be rouch wi' her, ye winna get a word oot o' her.
An' dinna han'le her that gait. She canna bide to be contred an' pu'd
this gait and that gait.--Come to me, my bonny leddy. Ye'll tell me yer
story, winna ye, my dauty (pet)?'

And with every gesture as if he were humouring a shy and invalid girl,
he would, as he said, wile the music out of her in sobs and wailing,
till the instrument, gathering courage in his embrace, grew gently
merry in its confidence, and broke at last into airy laughter. He always
spoke, and apparently thought, of his violin as a woman, just as a
sailor does of his craft. But there was nothing about him, except
his love for music and its instruments, to suggest other than a most
uncivilized nature. That which was fine in him was constantly checked
and held down by the gross; the merely animal overpowered the spiritual;
and it was only upon occasion that his heavenly companion, the violin,
could raise him a few feet above the mire and the clay. She never
succeeded in setting his feet on a rock; while, on the contrary, he
often dragged her with him into the mire of questionable company and
circumstances. Worthy Mr. Falconer would have been horrified to see his
umquhile modest companion in such society as that into which she was now
introduced at times. But nevertheless the soutar was a good and patient
teacher; and although it took Robert rather more than a fortnight
to redeem his pledge to Shargar, he did make progress. It could not,
however, be rapid, seeing that an hour at a time, two evenings in
the week, was all that he could give to the violin. Even with this
moderation, the risk of his absence exciting his grandmother's suspicion
and inquiry was far from small.

And now, were those really faded old memories of his grandfather and
his merry kindness, all so different from the solemn benevolence of his
grandmother, which seemed to revive in his bosom with the revivification
of the violin? The instrument had surely laid up a story in its hollow
breast, had been dreaming over it all the t