ce, I left the spot
without awakening the absent little one. As I was passing the cottage
door, however, I was overtaken by the mother in evident agitation. She
pointed along the path I had come by, as if she feared her child had
wandered to the highway or been lost amid the wild brushwood that grew
on that side of the vineyard. I soon made her understand that the
_piccolina_ was just behind her, and waited till she bounded away and
returned with the crying thing in her arms, loading it with gentle
reproaches and me with warm expressions of gratitude."

At Milan it must be admitted that he goes into raptures over the
Cathedral, but one is glad to note that he reserves an ample tribute
of enthusiasm for the old church of St. Ambrose: "In the cloister of
St. Ambrose I saw the famous cypress doors which the saint closed
against Theodosius, time-worn but solid; the brazen serpent, the fine
pulpit with the bas-relief of the Agape, and the veritable Episcopal
chair of marble, with solid back and sides, and lions embossed at the
corners, in which he sat in the councils of his presbyters. It is
almost the only relic I have done any honour to. I knelt down and
kissed it, and forgot for the time that I was both Protestant and
Presbyterian."

After a stormy and perilous voyage from Antwerp, he reached Newcastle
in the first week of August, and started at once for Edinburgh to
be present at the opening of the Divinity Hall. At the Dunglass
lodge-gate his brother David, who was waiting for a letter which he
had promised to throw down from the "Magnet" coach as he passed,
caught a hurried glimpse of him, lean and brown as a berry after his
exertions and his exposure to the Italian sun. On the following
Saturday he put his pedestrian powers to the proof by walking from
Edinburgh to Dunglass, when he covered the thirty-five and a half
miles in seven hours and fifty minutes, having stopped only twice on
the way--once in Haddington to buy a biscuit, and once at a wayside
watering-trough to take a drink.

The Hall session of 1844 was Cairns's last, and the next step for him
to take in ordinary course was to apply to a Presbytery for license as
a probationer. He had, however, some hesitation in taking this step,
mainly because he was not quite clear whether the real work of his
life lay in the discharge of the ordinary duties of the ministry, or
whether he might not render better service by devoting himself, as
opportunity offered, mor