ot sure but you'll find that the history of your
class-fellows is not without interest. The career of some of them has
been to me as a recompense for a' the pains I bestowed on them, and
that o' others has been a source o' grief. Wi' some I hae been
disappointed, wi' ithers, surprised; but you'll allow that I did my
utmost to fleech and to thrash your besetting sins out o' ye a'. I
will first inform ye what I know respecting the history of Alexander
Rutherford, whom all o' ye used to ca' Solitary Sandy, because he
wasna a hempy like yoursels. Now, sir, harken to the history of

SOLITARY SANDY.

I remarked that Sandy was an extraordinary callant, and that he would
turn out a character that would be heard tell o' in the world; though
that he would ever rise in it, as some term it, or become rich in it I
did not believe. I dinna think that e'er I had to raise the tawse to
Sandy in my life. He had always his task as ready by heart as he could
count his fingers. Ye ne'er saw Sandy looking over his book, or
nodding wi' it before his face. He and his lessons were like twa
acquaintances--fond o' each other's company. I hae observed fra the
window, when the rest o' ye would hae been driving at the hand-ba',
cleeshin your peerie-taps, or endangerin' your legs wi' the
duck-stane, Sandy wad been sitting on his hunkers in the garden,
looking as earnestly on a daisy or ony bit flower, as if the twa
creatures could hae held a crack wi' ane anither, and the bonny leaves
o' the wee silent things whispered to Sandy how they got their
colours, how they peeped forth to meet the kiss o' spring, and how the
same power that created the lowly daisy called man into existence, and
fashioned the bright sun and the glorious firmament. He was ance dux
and aye dux. From the first moment he got to the head o' the class,
there he remained as immoveable as a mountain. There was nae trapping
him; for his memory was like clockwark. I canna say that he had a
great turn for mathematics; but ye will remember, as weel as me, that
he was a great Grecian; and he had screeds o' Virgil as ready aff by
heart as the twenty-third psalm. Mony a time hae I said concerning
him, in the words o' Butler--

"Latin to him's no more difficil,
Than for a blackbird 'tis to whistle."

The classics, indeed, were his particular hobby; and, though I was
proud o' Sandy, I often wished that I could direct his bent to studies
o' greater practical utility. His exercise