better, John; and I hope, in a few days, she will be able to come down and
admire your pretty flowers. I really think they are taking root." John was
glad to hear this; and having watered them, and shaken hands with his
friend Nelly, he told her he should never again be afraid to encounter his
reading; "for," said he, "the Minister has so much patience, and explains
every thing to me so clearly, that I must be a dunce indeed not to
understand him, and a very bad boy if I do not take pains to remember what
he says."

John continued this kind of life without interruption for two months, in
the course of which time he had become very expert in the management of
his sheep; and Will was so much pleased with his diligence, that he taught
him both to make and also to play upon the same sort of whistle on which
he was himself so skilful a performer. John could now play, very
tolerably, the old Scottish air of "_the Ewe-buchts, Marion!_" a very
particular favourite of his, although Will said he thought it rather the
name than the tune which had caught the boy's fancy. His reading had
likewise improved wonderfully. Mr. Martin had lent him a common copy of
Robinson Crusoe (for the elegant one with the plates was too valuable to
be carried to the hill), and this book, which had first excited his desire
of learning, now became the constant companion of his leisure moments.
Indeed it would have entirely driven the whistle, the knitting, and
everything else out of his head, if Will, who was somewhat proud of his
scholar, had not insisted on his continuing to work at his stockings some
part of every day, and to display his progress in music to his
fellow-servants every evening.

Helen and Marion had by this time both recovered, though Marion was still
delicate. The latter, however, had found out that John's sheep grazed very
often just opposite to her father's house; she therefore, more than once,