honourin' ye and givin' ye the fairest chance ye'll ever hae o'
winning wealth. Gin ye store the money ye hae scrapit by mony a hard
bargain, some heir ye never saw 'ill gar it flee in chambering and
wantonness. Gin ye hed the heart to spend it on a lad o' pairts like
Geordie Hoo, ye wud hae twa rewards nae man could tak fra ye. Ane
wud be the honest gratitude o' a laddie whose desire for knowledge
ye hed sateesfied, and the second wud be this--anither scholar in
the land; and a'm thinking with auld John Knox that ilka scholar is
something added to the riches of the commonwealth. And what 'ill it
cost ye? Little mair than the price o' a cattle beast. Man, Drumsheugh,
ye poverty-stricken cratur, I've naethin' in this world but a handfu'
o' books and a ten-pund note for my funeral, and yet, if it wasna I
have all my brither's bairns tae keep, I wud pay every penny mysel'.
But I'll no see Geordie sent to the plough, tho' I gang frae door
to door. Na, na, the grass 'ill no grow on the road atween the
college and the schule-hoose o' Drumtochty till they lay me in the
auld kirkyard."

"Sall, Domsie was roosed," Drumsheugh explained in the Muirtown inn
next market. "'Miserly wratch' was the ceevilest word on his tongue.
He wud naither sit nor taste, and was half way doon the yaird afore
I cud quiet him. An' a'm no sayin' he hed na reason if I'd been
meanin' a' I said. It wud be a scan'al to the pairish if a likely
lad cudna win tae college for the want o' siller. Na, na, neeburs,
we hae oor faults, but we're no sae dune mean as that in
Drumtochty."

As it was, when Domsie did depart he could only grip Drumsheugh's
hand, and say Maecenas, and was so intoxicated, but not with strong
drink, that he explained to Hillocks on the way home that Drumsheugh