By degrees, however, when the first whirl of terror and confusion had a little subsided, the dim outlines of the correct decision began to dawn upon the bewildered soul of Mr. Scroggs. He saw that one of the boys must leave him, the only question now was which. He knew that Cruthers's father was a staunch yeoman, Laird of Breconhill, which he ploughed indeed with his own hands-but in a way that made him well to pass in money matters, the: enabled him on Sundays to ride forth upon a stout sleek nag, to pay his way on all occasions, and to fear no man. He knew at the same time that Jonson's father was likewise a Laird, and one that disdained to plough; but also that though his rank was higher, his purse was longer in the neck; that, in short, Knockhill was but a spendthrift; that he loved to hunt and gamble; and that his annual consumpt of whisky was very great. Mr. Scroggs was a gentleman that knew the world; he had learned to calculate the power of men and their various influences upon himself and the public; he felt the full force of that beautiful proposition in arithmetic, that one and one make two. He at length made up his mind.

"You, Jonson," said he, rising gradually, "you have broken the peace of the school; you have been a quarrelsome fellow, and when Cruthers got the better of you, in place of yielding or complaining to me, you have gone home privily and procured fire-arms, with intent, as I conceive, to murder, or at least mortally affright, a fellow Christian, an honest man's child; which, by the law of Moses, as you find in the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, and also by various Acts of Parliament, is a very heinous crime. You likewise owe me two quarters of school-wages,

1

which I do not expect you will ever pay; you cannot be here any longer. Go your ways, sirrah, and may all that's ll among us go with you!"

Apparently this most frank statement excited no very definito iden in Jonson's mind; at least he stood motionless on hearing it, his eyes fixed and tearless, his teeth clenched, his nostrils dilated, all his frame displaying symptoms of some inward agony by which his little mind was torn, but indicating no settled purpose of acting either this way or that. Most persous would have pitied him; but Mr. Scroggs was free from that infirmity: he had felt no pity during many years for any but himself. Cruthers was younger and more generous: touched to the quick at his adversary's forlorn situation, he stepped forward, and bravely signified that himself was equally to blame, promising, moreover, that if the past could be forgiven, he would so live with Jonson as to give no cause for censure in the future.

"Let us both stay," he said, "and we will never quarrel

more."

Tears burst from Jonson's eyes at this unexpected proposal; the Dominic himself, surprised and pleased, inquired if he was willing to stand by it. For answer he stretched out his hand, and grasped that of Cruthers in silence.

"Well, blessed are the peacemakers," observed Mr. Scroggs, "blessed indeed. See that it bo so-sce that, &c. &c. Boys," continued he, "this is a braw business certainly; these two callants (gallants) have done very manfully-hem!-you shall have this afternoon in holiday

to

A universal squeal returned him loud and shrill acclaim;

the sunburnt urchins capered, pranced, and shouted; in their souls they blessed the two rivals, danced round them for a few minutes, then darted off by a hundred different paths; while the Dominie, with his raw-boned pupil, Mr. Candlewick, the gauger, returned to their studies with fresh alacrity.

Not so Cruthers and Jonson. They were left together, glad as any other pair, but with a more serious gladness. They were not in haste to go home, having much to tell each other. Two grown-up persons would have felt very awkward in their place; would have hemm'd and haw'd, and said a great many insipidities, attempting, perhaps honestly, to break the ice of ceremony, but in vainsincerely desirous to be reconciled, yet obliged to part chagrined and baffled, and praying mutually that they might never meet again. The boys managed better. In a moment they got over head and ears in each other's confidence; proposed an afternoon's nesting together; strolled over the green fields and copses; recapitulating all the while their former feuds and conflicts, each taking the whole blame upon himself-communicating, too, their little hopes and projects, admiring each other heartily, and feeling the pleasure of talking increase every moment. Wearied, at length, by wandering in many a shady dingle, many a sunny holm, they sat down upon a bright green hillock, in the midst of what is now called the Duke's Meadow, and agreed that it would soon be time to part.

It was a lovely evening, as I have been told, and the place itself is not without some charms. Around them lay an undulating tract of green country, sprinkled with trees and white cottages, hanging on the sunny sides of the

declivities. Cattle lowing afar off in the closes; plough. men driving home their wearied teams; and columns of blue peat-smoke rising from every chimney within sight, gave notice that the good wives were cooking their hus bands' frugal supper. In front the Annan rolled to the eastward, with a full and clear current, a shrill, quiet, rushing tone, through woods of beech and sycamore, all glancing and twinkling in the evening shoen. On the left rose Woodcockair, to which the rook was making wing, and Repentance Hill, with its old Border watch-tower, now inhabited by ghosts and pigeons; while to the right, and far away, the great red disc of the sun, among its curtains of flaming cloud, was hanging over the shoulder of Criffel, and casting a yellow, goldon light athwart the whole Frith of Solway; on the other side of which St. Bees' Head, with all the merry ports and granges of Cumberland, swelled gradually up into the hills, where Skiddaw and Helvellyn, and a thousand nameless peaks, towered away into the azure vault, and shone as if they had been something far better than they were.

These boys were no poets. Indeed, except the author of Lagg's Elegy and Macnay, whose Ode, beginning with

“A joiner lad has ta'en a trip

Across the Atlantic in a ship,"

-(not a cart, or washing-tub, the usual method of conveyance)-has been much admired by the literary world, Annandale has had few poets of note, and no philosopher but "Henderson On the Breeding of Swine;" yet the beauty of such a scene, the calm, rich, reposing loveliness of nature, will penetrate into the dullest heart. These poor fellows felt its influence, though they knew it not; disposing

them to peace and friendliness, and generous purposes, beyond the low rudeness of their customary way of life. They took each other's hands-the right in the right the left in the left, crosswise, though they had no leaning to Popery and there promised solemnly that they would ever be friends, would back each other out in every quarrel, assist each other in purse and person while they lived; and, to close all, they added a stipulation that when one died, the other, if withiu seas at the time, should see his comrade quietly laid in earth, and their friendship, never broken in this world, consigned devoutly to the prospects of a better. It is not recorded that any thunder was heard in the sky to ratify this vow-any flight of eagles to the right hand or to the left, or any flight of anything-except, indeed, the flapping, staggering, hovering half-flight of an old and careworn goose, busily engaged in hatching nine addle eggs by the side of a neighbouring brook, and just then issuing forth with much croaking, and hissing, and blusteringless, I fear, to solemnise their engagement than to seek her evening ration, of which, at that particular date, she felt a strong and very urgent need. It were pity that no such prodigy occurred; for the promise was made in singular circumstances, and, what is stranger still, was faithfully observed. Cruthers and Jonson "never quarrelled more."

I lament exceedingly that my ambition of minuteness and fidelity has led me to spin out this history of half a solar day into a length so disproportionate. I lament still more that the yawning of my readers warns me how needful it is to be more concise in future. I would willingly illus trate by examples, and otherwise dilate upon, the friendship of these two youths, having no brothers by relationship,