at the boy, "as you are so good, will you
oblige me by bringing the bottle from the sideboard?"

Gibbie started at the sound of his name, but did not move from the
place. After a moment, the minister, who had resumed the
conversation, thinking he had not heard him, looked up. There,
between the foot of the table and the sideboard, stood Gibbie as if
fixed to the floor gazing out of his blue eyes at the
minister--those eyes filmy with gathering tears, the smile utterly
faded from his countenance.--Would the Master have drunk out of that
bottle? he was thinking with himself. Imagining some chance remark
had hurt the boy's pride, and not altogether sorry--it gave hope of
the gentleman he wanted to make him--Mr. Sclater spoke again:

"It's just behind you, Sir Gilbert--the whisky bottle--that purple
one with the silver top."

Gibbie never moved, but his eyes began to run over. A fearful
remembrance of the blow he had given him on the head rushed back on
Mr. Sclater: could it be the consequence of that? Was the boy
paralyzed? He was on the point of hurrying to him, but restrained
himself, and rising with deliberation, approached the sideboard. A
nearer sight of the boy's face reassured him.

"I beg your pardon, Sir Gilbert," he said; "I thought you would not
mind waiting on us as well as on the ladies. It is your own fault,
you know.--There," he added, pointing to the table; "take your
place, and have a little toddy. It won't hurt you."

The eyes of all the guests were by this time fixed on Gibbie. What
could be the matter with the curious creature? they wondered. His
gentle merriment and quiet delight in waiting upon them, had given a
pleasant concussion to the spirits of the party, which had at first
threatened to be rather a stiff and dull one; and there now was the
boy all at once looking as if he had received a blow, or some
cutting insult which he did not know how to resent!

Between the agony of refusing to serve, and the impossibility of
putting his hand to unclean ministration, Gibbie had stood as if
spell-bound. He would have thought little of such horrors in Lucky
Croale's houff, but the sight of the things here terrified him. He
felt as a Corinthian Christian must, catching a sight of one of the
elders of the church feasting in a temple. But the last words of
the minister broke the painful charm. He burst into tears, and
darting from the room, not a little to his guardian's relief,
hurr