he heavens.
He was an absolute sepulchre in the swallowing of oppression and
ill-usage. It vanished in him. There was no echo of complaint, no murmur
of resentment from the hollows of that soul. The blows that fell upon
him resounded not, and no one but God remembered them.

His mother made her living as she herself best knew, with occasional
well-begrudged assistance from the parish. Her chief resource was no
doubt begging from house to house for the handful of oatmeal which
was the recognized, and, in the court of custom-taught conscience, the
legalized dole upon which every beggar had a claim; and if she picked
up at the same time a chicken, or a boy's rabbit, or any other stray
luxury, she was only following the general rule of society, that your
first duty is to take care of yourself. She was generally regarded as
a gipsy, but I doubt if she had any gipsy blood in her veins. She was
simply a tramper, with occasional fits of localization. Her worst fault
was the way she treated her son, whom she starved apparently that she
might continue able to beat him.

The particular occasion which led to the recognition of the growing
relation between Robert and Shargar was the following. Upon a certain
Saturday--some sidereal power inimical to boys must have been in the
ascendant--a Saturday of brilliant but intermittent sunshine, the white
clouds seen from the school windows indicating by their rapid transit
across those fields of vision that fresh breezes friendly to kites, or
draigons, as they were called at Rothieden, were frolicking in the upper
regions--nearly a dozen boys were kept in for not being able to pay down
from memory the usual instalment of Shorter Catechism always due at
the close of the week. Amongst these boys were Robert and Shargar.
Sky-revealing windows and locked door were too painful; and in
proportion as the feeling of having nothing to do increased, the more
uneasy did the active element in the boys become, and the more ready
to break out into some abnormal manifestation. Everything--sun, wind,
clouds--was busy out of doors, and calling to them to come and join the
fun; and activity at the same moment excited and restrained naturally
turns to mischief. Most of them had already learned the obnoxious
task--one quarter of an hour was enough for that--and now what should
they do next? The eyes of three or four of the eldest of them fell
simultaneously upon Shargar.

Robert was sitting plunged in one o