ning absolutely silent, the minister had it all his
own way. But before he had begun to draw to a close, across the
blinding mists of his fog-breeding wrath he began to be aware of the
shining of two heavenly lights, the eyes, namely, of the dumb boy
fixed upon him. They jarred him a little in his onward course; they
shook him as if with a doubt; the feeling undefined slowly grew to a
notion, first obscure, then plain: they were eyes of reproof that
were fastened upon his! At the first suspicion, his anger flared up
more fierce than ever; but it was a flare of a doomed flame; slowly
the rebuke told, was telling; the self-satisfied in-the-rightness--a
very different thing from righteousness--of the man was sinking
before the innocent difference of the boy; he began to feel awkward,
he hesitated, he ceased: for the moment Gibbie, unconsciously, had
conquered; without knowing it, he was the superior of the two, and
Mr. Sclater had begun to learn that he could never exercise
authority over him. But the wordly-wise man will not seem to be
defeated even where he knows he is. If he do give in, he will make
it look as if it came of the proper motion of his own goodness.
After a slight pause, the minister spoke again, but with the
changed tone of one who has had an apology made to him, whose anger
is appeased, and who therefore acts the Neptune over the billows of
his own sea. That was the way he would slide out of it.

"Donal Grant," he said, "you had better go to bed at once, and get
fit for your work to-morrow. I will go with you to call upon the
principal. Take care you are not out of the way when I come for
you.--Get your cap, Sir Gilbert, and come. Mrs. Sclater was already
very uneasy about you when I left her."

Gibbie took from his pocket the little ivory tablets Mrs. Sclater
had given him, wrote the following words, and handed them to the
minister:

"Dear sir, I am going to slepe this night with Donal. The bed is
bigg enuf for 2. Good night, sir."

For a moment the minister's wrath seethed again. Like a volcano,
however, that has sent out a puff of steam, but holds back its lava,
he thought better of it: here was a chance of retiring with
grace--in well-conducted retreat, instead of headlong rout.

"Then be sure you are home by lesson-time," he said. "Donal can come
with you. Good night. Mind you don't keep each other awake."

Donal said "Good night, sir," and Gibbie gave him a serious and
resp