play a game of golf on the links,
and he would have done so had he not promised Janet to return at once,
but he hoped that she would let him go another day. David had not been
behind hand with his brother in his class, but he had not been so happy,
and the boys had asked him questions to which he had been unable to
frame replies, without betraying the truth, which Janet had especially
charged them not to do.

"They wanted to ken all about us," exclaimed Donald, "and I told them
that they must just mind their ain business; my home might be a castle
in the Highlands some day, and whatever it might now be, I was contented
with it."

"A very proper answer," exclaimed Janet, smiling for the first time for
many a long day. "Ye maunna be ashamed of your home, or those in it,
laddie; just gang on doing your duty, but dinna mind what young or old,
or rich or poor, think of ye."

"But I said nothing, I would na answer them," said David, sobbing.

"Ye did weel, too, laddie," observed Janet. "The wise man knows where
his strength lies, the weakest may thus come off the conqueror."

She had now to make arrangements for Margaret's education. This was
more difficult than for that of the boys. She could not trust her
sweet, gentle, blue-eyed maid among girls who might be rough or
unmannerly, and yet she could not possibly afford to send her to one of
the upper class of schools. Margaret already read much better than she
did, for her own attainments extended no further than a limited amount
of reading and writing. The few books, besides the Bible, she had
brought away from the minister's library, were mostly on theological
subjects, somewhat, she felt sure, beyond Margaret's comprehension. She
lived on dry crusts for many a day to sanction her extravagance in
purchasing several books, one after the other, suited to the little
maiden's taste. Margaret was delighted to receive them, and while Janet
sat and span she read them aloud to her, and amply rewarded was the kind
nurse for her self-denial. Not dreaming that Margaret could possibly
educate herself, she still continued turning in her mind how that
desirable object should be accomplished.

"Dinna ye think that if we ask God He will show us the way," said
Margaret, one day, looking up into the face of her nurse, who had made
some remark on the subject.

"We will do as ye propose, my sweet bairn," answered Janet. "He is sure
to hear us," and, accordingly, when the cha