ts case, and carried off; and Mrs. Falconer rejoiced to
think she had broken a gin set by Satan for the unwary feet of her poor
Robert. Little she knew the wonder of that violin--how it had kept the
soul of her husband alive! Little she knew how dangerous it is to shut
an open door, with ever so narrow a peep into the eternal, in the face
of a son of Adam! And little she knew how determinedly and restlessly
a nature like Robert's would search for another, to open one possibly
which she might consider ten times more dangerous than that which she
had closed.

When Alexander heard of the affair, he was at first overwhelmed with the
misfortune; but gathering a little heart at last, he set to 'working,'
as he said himself, 'like a verra deevil'; and as he was the best
shoemaker in the town, and for the time abstained utterly from whisky,
and all sorts of drink but well-water, he soon managed to save the money
necessary, and redeem the old fiddle. But whether it was from fancy, or
habit, or what, even Robert's inexperienced ear could not accommodate
itself, save under protest, to the instrument which once his teacher had
considered all but perfect; and it needed the master's finest touch to
make its tone other than painful to the sense of the neophyte.

No one can estimate too highly the value of such a resource to a man
like the shoemaker, or a boy like Robert. Whatever it be that keeps the
finer faculties of the mind awake, wonder alive, and the interest above
mere eating and drinking, money-making and money-saving; whatever it
be that gives gladness, or sorrow, or hope--this, be it violin, pencil,
pen, or, highest of all, the love of woman, is simply a divine gift of
holy influence for the salvation of that being to whom it comes, for the
lifting of him out of the mire and up on the rock. For it keeps a way
open for the entrance of deeper, holier, grander influences, emanating
from the same riches of the Godhead. And though many have genius that
have no grace, they will only be so much the worse, so much the nearer
to the brute, if you take from them that which corresponds to Dooble
Sanny's fiddle.

CHAPTER XII. ROBERT'S PLAN OF SALVATION.

For some time after the loss of his friend, Robert went loitering and
mooning about, quite neglecting the lessons to which he had not, it must
be confessed, paid much attention for many weeks. Even when seated at
his grannie's table, he could do no more than fix his eyes on his