guessing. At twelve Ralph was already far on in Latin and Greek,
and at thirteen he could read plain narrative Hebrew, and had a
Hebrew Bible of his own in which he followed his father, to the
admiration of all the congregation.

Prigs of very pure water have sometimes been manufactured by just
such means as this.

Sometimes his father would lean over and say, "My son, what is the
expression for that in the original?" whereupon Ralph would read
the passage. It was between Gilbert Peden and his Maker that
sometimes he did this for pride, and not for information; but
Ralph was his only son, and was he not training him, as all knew,
in order that he might be a missionary apostle of the great truths
of the protesting kirk of the Marrow, left to testify lonely and
forgotten among the scanty thousands of Scotland, yet carrying
indubitably the only pure doctrine as it had been delivered to the
saints?

But, in spite of all, the lad's bent was really towards
literature. The books of verses which he kept under lock and key
were the only things that he had ever concealed from his father.
Again, since he had come to man's estate, the articles he had
covertly sent to the Edinburgh Magazine were manifest tokens of
the bent of his mind. All the more was he conscious of this, that
he had truly lived his life before the jealous face of his
father's God, though his heart leaned to the milder divinity and
the kindlier gospel of One who was the Bearer of Burdens.

Ralph lay long on his bed, on which he had lain down at full