* * * * *

"I saw young Walter juist yince mair in life. I stepped doon to see him
the next mornin' when the end was near. He was catchin' and twitchin' at
the coverlet, liftin' up his hand an' lookin' at it as though it was
somebody else's. It was a black fog outside, an' even in the garret it
took him in his throat till he couldna get breath.

"He motioned for me to sit doon beside him. There was nae chair, so I
e'en gat doon on my knees. The lass stood white an' quaite at the far
side o' the bed. He turned his een on me, blue an' bonnie as a bairn's;
but wi' a licht in them that telled he had eaten o' the tree o'
knowledge, and that no' seldom.

"'O Sandy,' he whispered, 'what a mess I've made o't, haven't I? You'll
see my mither when ye gang back to Deeside. Tell her it's no' been so
bad as it has whiles lookit. Tell her I've aye loved her, even at the
warst--an'--an' my faither too!' he said, with a kind o' grip in his
words.

"'Walter,' says I, 'I'll pit up a prayer, as I'm on my knees onyway.'
I'm no' giftit like some, I ken; but, Robert, I prayed for that laddie
gaun afore his Maker as I never prayed afore or since. And when I spak'
aboot the forgiein' o' sin, the laddie juist steekit his een an' said
'Amen!'

"That nicht as the clock was chappin' twal' the lassie cam' to my door
(an' the landlady wasna that weel pleased at bein' raised, eyther), an'
she askit me to come an' see Walter, for there was naebody else that had