 minister, »that would I, and without pause. A pretty
lad like you should get to Cramond (which is near in by Edinburgh) in two days
of walk. If the worst came to the worst, and your high relations (as I cannot
but suppose them to be somewhat of your blood) should put you to the door, ye
can but walk the two days back again and risp at the manse door. But I would
rather hope that ye shall be well received, as your poor father forecast for
you, and for anything that I ken come to be a great man in time. And here, Davie
laddie,« he resumed, »it lies near upon my conscience to improve this parting,
and set you on the right guard against the dangers of the world.«
    Here he cast about for a comfortable seat, lighted on a big boulder under a
birch by the trackside, sate down upon it with a very long, serious upper lip,
and, the sun now shining in upon us between two peaks, put his
pocket-handkerchief over his cocked hat to shelter him. There, then, with
uplifted forefinger, he first put me on my guard against a considerable number
of heresies, to which I had no temptation, and urged upon me to be instant in my
prayers and reading of the Bible. That done, he drew a picture of the great
house that I was bound to, and how I should conduct myself with its inhabitants.
    »Be soople, Davie, in things immaterial,« said he. »Bear ye this in mind,
that, though gentle born, ye have had a country rearing. Dinna shame us, Davie,
dinna shame us! In yon great muckle house, with all these domestics, upper and
under, show yourself as nice, as circumspect, as quick at the conception, and as
slow of speech as any. As for the laird - remember he's the laird; I say no
more: honour to whom honour. It's a pleasure to obey a laird; or should be, to
the young.«
    »Well, sir,« said I, »it may be; and I'll promise you I'll try to make it
so.«
    »Why, very well said,« replied Mr. Campbell heartily. »And now to come to
the material, or (to make a quibble) to the immaterial. I have here a little
packet which contains four things.« He tugged it, as he spoke, and with some
great difficulty, from
