ant scholar when he wanted to be, but all subjects did not
interest him.

At one time there was a certain boy who always stood at the top of
Walter's class whom young Scott could not supplant, try as he would.
Finally Walter noticed that whenever the master asked that boy a
question the latter always fumbled with his fingers at a certain button
on the lower part of his waistcoat. Walter Scott thereupon determined to
cut off that particular button, and see what would happen. He found a
chance soon after and cut off the button with a knife, while the owner
of the coat was not looking. Then Walter waited with the greatest
interest to see what would happen.

The next time the master asked questions of the youth at the head of the
class Walter saw the boy's fingers feel for the button, and then saw him
look down at the place on his coat where it should have been. When he
saw it was missing he grew confused, stammered, muttered to himself, and
could not answer the question. Walter came next, and, being able to
answer the question, took the other boy's place, chuckling to himself.
He did not hold it long. He had simply wished to see what would happen,
and having found out he was quite willing to surrender the place to the
boy who was really the better scholar.

In a thousand ways Walter showed his love of history and romance.
Anything that was picturesque, whether it was a view or an old dirk,
caught his attention at once. For a short time he took lessons in oil
painting from a German. He soon found that he had not the eye nor the
hand for the work, but it happened that the teacher's father had been a
soldier in the army of Frederick the Great, and as soon as Walter found
this out, he plied the man with questions. Long afterward he said he
vividly remembered the man's picturesque account of seeing a party of
the famous Black Hussars bringing in forage carts which they had
captured from the Cossacks, with the wounded Cossacks themselves lying
high up on the piles of straw.

Often in good weather the boys of George's Square would go on long
excursions into the country, frequently staying away from home for
several days at a time. On one such occasion they found themselves some
twenty miles away from Edinburgh without a single sixpence left among
them. Walter said afterward, "We were certainly put to our shifts, but
we asked every now and then at a cottage door for a drink of water; and
one or two of the good wives, observing