should never have discovered it myself,--one misses it so
little when the larger things are all present!

A certain summer visitor in Pettybaw (a compatriot of ours, by the way)
bought a quantity of David's orange-coloured wincey, and finding that it
wore like iron, wished to order more. She used the word 'reproduce'
in her telegram, as there was one pattern and one colour she specially
liked. Perhaps the context was not illuminating, but at any rate the
word 'reproduce' was not in David's vocabulary, and putting back his
spectacles he told me his difficulty in deciphering the exact meaning of
his fine-lady patron. He called at the Free Kirk manse,--the meenister
was no' at hame; then to the library,--it was closed; then to the
Estaiblished manse,--the meenister was awa'. At last he obtained a
glance at the schoolmaster's dictionary, and turning to 'reproduce'
found that it meant 'nought but mak' ower again';--and with an amused
smile at the bedevilments of language he turned once more to his loom
and I to my canvas.

Notwithstanding his unfamiliarity with 'langnebbit' words, David has
absorbed a deal of wisdom in his quiet life; though so far as I can see,
his only books have been the green tree outside his window, a glimpse of
the distant ocean, and the toil of his hands.

But I sometimes question if as many scholars are not made as marred in
this wise, for--to the seeing eye--the waving leaf and the far sea, the
daily task, one's own heart-beats, and one's neighbour's,--these teach
us in good time to interpret Nature's secrets, and man's, and God's as
well.

Chapter XX. A Fifeshire tea-party.

'The knights they harpit in their bow'r,
The ladyes sew'd and sang;
The mirth that was in that chamber
Through all the place it rang.'

Rose the Red and White Lily.

Tea at Rowardennan Castle is an impressive and a delightful function.
It is served by a ministerial-looking butler and a
just-ready-to-be-ordained footman. They both look as if they had been
nourished on the Thirty-Nine Articles, but they know their business as
well as if they had been trained in heathen lands,--which is saying a
good deal, for everybody knows that heathen servants wait upon one
with idolatrous solicitude. However, from the quality of the cheering
beverage itself down to the thickness of the cream, the thinness of the
china, the crispness of the toast, and the plummyness of the cake, tea
at Rowardennan Castle is