all the sternness and severity of his pastor's arbitrary and
unyielding creed. He was taught to pray twice every day, and
seven times on Sabbath days; but he was only to pray for the
elect, and, like Devil of old, doom all that were aliens from God
to destruction. He had never, in that family into which he had
been as it were adopted, heard aught but evil spoken of his
reputed father and brother; consequently he held them in utter
abhorrence, and prayed against them every day, often "that the
old hoary sinner might be cut off in the full flush of his iniquity,
and be carried quick into hell; and that the young stem of the
corrupt trunk might also be taken from a world that he disgraced,
but that his sins might be pardoned, because he knew no better."

Such were the tenets in which it would appear young Robert was
bred. He was an acute boy, an excellent learner, had ardent and
ungovernable passions, and, withal, a sternness of demeanour
from which other boys shrunk. He was the best grammarian, the
best reader, writer, and accountant in the various classes that he
attended, and was fond of writing essays on controverted points
of theology, for which he got prizes, and great praise from his
guardian and mother. George was much behind him in scholastic
acquirements, but greatly his superior in personal prowess, form,
feature, and all that constitutes gentility in the deportment and
appearance. The laird had often manifested to Miss Logan an
earnest wish that the two young men should never meet, or at all
events that they should be as little conversant as possible; and
Miss Logan, who was as much attached to George as if he had
been her own son, took every precaution, while he was a boy, that
he should never meet with his brother; but, as they advanced
towards manhood, this became impracticable. The lady was