aily bread in the
language and accent of Paris, because for the moment they have forgotten
English. It is my own firm conviction, and nothing can shake it, that
Muirtown lads are just as incapable of explaining their necessary wants
in any speech except their own as they were in the days of our fathers,
and that if a Seminary boy were landed in Calais to-day, he would get
his food at the buffet by making signs with his fingers, as his father
had done before him and as becomes a young barbarian. He would also take
care, as his fathers did, that he would not be cheated in his change nor
be put upon by any "Frenchy." Foreign graduates may do their best with
Seminary lads--and their kind elsewhere--but they will not find it easy
to shape their unruly tongues; for the Briton is fully persuaded in the
background of his mind that he belongs to an imperial race and is born
to be a ruler, that every man will sooner or later have to speak his
language, and that it is undignified to condescend to French. The Briton
is pleased to know that foreign nations have some means of communication
between themselves--as, indeed, the lower animals have, if you go into
the matter; but since the Almighty has put an English (or Scots) tongue
in his mouth, it would be flying in the face of Providence not to use
it. It is, however, an excellent thing to have the graduates, and the
trim class-room, and the tables of the foreign verbs upon the wall, and
the conversation classes--Speug at a conversation class!--and all the
rest of it; but, oh! the days of long ago--and Moossy!

Like our only other foreigner, the Count, Moossy was a nameless man, for
although it must have been printed on the board in the vestibule of the
school, which had a list of masters and of classes, no one can now hint
at Moossy's baptismal name, nor even suggest his surname. The name of
the Count had been sunk in the nobility which we conferred upon him, and
which was the tribute of our respectful admiration, but "Moossy" was a
term of good-humoured contempt. We were only Scots lads of a provincial
town, and knew nothing of the outside world; but yet, with the instincts
of a race of Chieftains and Clansmen, we distinguished in our minds
between our two foreigners and placed them far apart. No doubt the Count
was womanish in his dress, and had fantastic manners, but we knew he was
a gallant gentleman, who was afraid of nobody and was always ready to
serve his friends; he was _deb