w that Robert was needed to
increase the earnings, and that meant there was nothing but the pit for
him.

"You maun hae been real clever, though, to pass," she said again, after
a pause. "How many failed?"

"Four, mither," he cried, again waxing enthusiastic over the
examination. "Mysie Maitland passed, too. She was first among the
lasses, and I was first in the laddies."

"Eh, man, Bob, learnin' is a gran' thing to hae," she said wistfully,
looking at him very tenderly.

"Ay, but I'm gaun to the pit," he said decisively, fearing that she was
again going to enlarge upon the schoolmaster's life.

"Very weel," she said after a bit, "I suppose ye'll be lookin' for a
job. Your faither was saying last nicht that ye're too young to gang
into the pit. Ye maun be twelve years auld afore ye get doon the pit
noo, ye ken. So I suppose it'll be the pithead for ye for a while."

She had often dreamed her dream, even though she knew it was an
impossible one, that she would like to see her laddie go right on
through the Secondary School in the county town to the University. She
knew he had talents above the ordinary, and, besides, her soul rebelled
at the thought of her boy having to endure the things that his father
had to go through with. She was an intelligent woman, and though she had
had little education, she saw things differently from most of the women
of her class. She had character, and her influence was easily traced in
her children, but more especially in Robert, who was always her favorite
bairn. She was wise, too, and had fathomed some secrets of psychology
which many women with a university training had never even glimpsed.

She often maintained that her children's minds were molded before she
gave them birth, and that it depended upon the state of mind she was in
herself during those nine months, as to what kind of soul her child
would be born possessing. It may have been merely a whim on her part,
but she held tenaciously to her belief, acted in accordance with it, and
no one could dissuade her from it. Robert was her child of song, her
sunny offspring, stung into revolt against tyranny of all kinds. His
soul, strong and true as steel, she knew would stand whatever test was
put upon it. Incorruptible and sincere, nothing could break him.
Generous and forgiving, he could never be bought.

"I'll gang the nicht, mither, an' see if I can get a job. I micht get
started the morn," he said breaking in upon her though