for a pair o' blue e'en and a handfu' o' gowden curls. Waly! waly! but
the children o' Esau live for ever."

"Mary said,"--

"I dinna want to hear what Mary said. It would hae been nae loss if
she'd ne'er spoken on the matter; but if you think makin' money, an'
hoarding money is the measure o' your capacity you ken yousel', sir,
dootless. Howsomever you'll go to your ain room now; I'm no going to
keep my auld e'en waking just for a common business body."

Thus in spite of his father's support, David did not find his road to
London as fair and straight as he could have wished. Janet was deeply
offended at him, and she made him feel it in a score of little ways very
annoying to a man fond of creature comforts and human sympathy. His
mother went about the necessary preparations in a tearful mood that was
a constant reproach, and his friend Willie did not scruple to tell him
that "he was clean out o' the way o' duty."

"God has given you a measure o' St. Paul's power o' argument, Davie, and
the verra tongue o' Apollos--weapons wherewith to reason against all
unrighteousness and to win the souls o' men."

"Special pleading, Willie."

"Not at all. Every man's life bears its inscription if he will take the
trouble to read it. There was James Grahame, born, as you may say, wi' a
sword in his hand, and Bauldy Strang wi' a spade, and Andrew Semple took
to the balances and the 'rithmetic as a duck takes to the water. Do you
not mind the day you spoke anent the African missions to the young men