ssion of respectable matrons, but
their efforts to tend him in his loneliness were not always successful,
nor even appreciated to the full by the young McGuffie. When Mrs.
Dowbiggin, who had a deep interest in what was called the "work among
children," and who got her cabs from McGuffie's stable, took pity on
Peter's unprotected childhood, and invited him to play with her boys,
who were a head taller and paragons of excellence, the result was
unfortunate, and afforded Mrs. Dowbiggin the text for many an
exhortation. Peter was brought back to the parental mansion by Dr.
Dowbiggin's beadle within an hour, and received a cordial welcome from a
congregation of grooms, to whom he related his experiences at the Manse
with much detail and agreeable humour. During the brief space at his
disposal he had put every toy of the Dowbiggins' in a thorough state of
repair, and had blacked their innocent faces with burnt cork so that
their mother did not recognise her children. He had also taught them a
negro melody of a very taking description, and had reinforced their
vocabulary with the very cream of the stable. From that day Mrs.
Dowbiggin warned the mothers of Muirtown against allowing their boys to
associate with Speug, and Speug could never see her pass on the street
without an expression of open delight.

When Mr. McGuffie senior brought his son, being then ten years old, to
the Seminary for admittance, it was a chance that he was not refused and
that we did not miss our future champion. Mr. McGuffie's profession and
reputation were a stumbling-block to the rector, who was a man of
austere countenance and strict habits of life, and Peter himself was a
very odd-looking piece of humanity and had already established his own
record. He was under-sized and of exceptional breadth, almost flat in
countenance, and with beady black eyes which on occasion lit up his face
as when one illuminates the front of a house, but the occasions were
rarely those which would commend themselves to the headmaster of a
public school. How the dealer in horses removed the rector's
difficulties was never accurately known, but boys passing the door of
the rector's retiring-room when he was closeted with Mr. McGuffie
overheard scraps of the conversation, and Muirtown was able to
understand the situation. It was understood that in a conflict of words
the rector, an absent-minded scholar of shrinking manner, was not
likely to come off best, and it is certain t