Muirtown, and you ... have many boys. But you've been
kind to Nestie, and he ... loves you."

The minister stopped, breathless, and closed his eyes.

"Mr. Molyneux," began Bulldog in a stern voice, "I'm willing to manage
Nestie's estate, big or small, and I'll give an account of all
intromissions to the Court, but I must decline to look out a home for
Nestie.

"Nestie and me" (bad grammar has its uses, and some of them are very
comforting) "are good freends. My house has just an auld schoolmaster
and an housekeeper in it, and whiles we would like to hear a young
voice."

Bulldog paused and then went on, his voice sterner than ever--in sound.

"Now Bell's bark is worse than her bite, and maybe so is mine (Nestie
nodded), so if the wee man wouldna be feared to live wi' ...
Bulldog--oh, I know fine what the rascals call me--he 'ill have a heart
welcome, and ... I'll answer to ye baith, father and mother, for yir
laddie at the Day o' Judgment."

"'What shall I render ... unto the Lord ... for all His benefits?' I
cannot thank you ... (the minister was now very weak); but you will not
... miss your reward. May the God of the orphan.... Kiss me, Nestie."

For a short while he slept, and they watched for any sign of
consciousness.

"It was too soon"--he was speaking, but not to them--"for Nestie ... to
come, Maud; he must stay ... at school. He is a good boy, and ... his
master will ... take care of him ... Nestie will grow to be a man,
dear."

The minister was nearing the other side, and seeing the face he loved
and had lost awhile.

"It's mother," whispered Nestie, and a minute later he was weeping
bitterly and clinging with all his might to the schoolmaster, who came
perilously near to tears himself.

"They're together now, and ... I'll be father and mother to ye, Nestie,"
said Mr. Dugald MacKinnon, master of mathematics in Muirtown Seminary,
and known as Bulldog to three generations of Muirtown lads.

A FAMOUS VICTORY

IV

The Seminary perfectly understood that, besides our two chief enemies,
the "Pennies" and McIntyres, there were, in the holes and corners of the
town, obscure schools where little companies of boys got some kind of
education and were not quite devoid of proper spirit. During a really
respectable snow-storm--which lasted for a month and gave us an
opportunity of bringing affairs to a temporary settlement with our
rivals, so that the town of Muirtown was our own for the next seve