, leaping to his feet in his
excitement. "I promise you I would not give you any trouble; and as for
marching, there isn't a man in Nithsdale who can tire me out across the
mountains."

"But what's to become of the house, Malcolm, and the land and the
herds?"

"Oh, they will be all right," the boy said. "Leave old Duncan in charge,
and he will look after them."

"But I had intended you to go to St. Andrews next year, Malcolm, and
I think the best plan will be for you to go there at once. As you say,
Duncan can look after the place."

Malcolm's face fell.

"Take the lad with you, Graheme," Colonel Munro said. "Three years under
Gustavus will do him vastly more good than will St. Andrews. You know it
never did us any good to speak of. We learned a little more Latin than
we knew when we went there, but I don't know that that has been of any
use to us; whereas for the dry tomes of divinity we waded through, I
am happy to say that not a single word of the musty stuff remains in my
brains. The boy will see life and service, he will have opportunities
of distinguishing himself under the eye of the most chivalrous king in
Europe, he will have entered a noble profession, and have a fair chance
of bettering his fortune, all of which is a thousand times better than
settling down here in this corner of Scotland."

"I must think it over," Graheme said; "it is a serious step to take.
I had thought of his going to the court at London after he left the
university, and of using our family interest to push his way there."

"What is he to do in London?" Munro said. "The old pedant James, who
wouldn't spend a shilling or raise a dozen men to aid the cause of his
own daughter, and who thought more of musty dogmatic treatises than of
the glory and credit of the country he ruled over, or the sufferings
of his co-religionists in Germany, has left no career open to a lad of
spirit."

"Well, I will think it over by the morning," Graheme said. "And now tell
me a little more about the merits of this quarrel in Germany. If I
am going to fight, I should like at least to know exactly what I am
fighting about."

"My dear fellow," Hume laughed, "you will never make a soldier if you
always want to know the ins and outs of every quarrel you have to fight
about; but for once the tenderest conscience may be satisfied as to
the justice of the contention. But Munro is much better versed in the
history of the affair than I am; for, to tell you the