from an
accident in early youth. He was, besides, the child of a doting grandmother,
whose too solicitous attention to him soon taught him a sort of diffidence in
himself, with a disposition to overrate his own importance, which is one of the
very worst consequences that children deduce from over-indulgence.
    Still, however, the two children clung to each other's society, not more
from habit than from taste. They herded together the handful of sheep, with the
two or three cows, which their parents turned out rather to seek food than
actually to feed upon the unenclosed common of Dumbiedikes. It was there that
the two urchins might be seen seated beneath a blooming bush of whin, their
little faces laid close together under the shadow of the same plaid drawn over
both their heads, while the landscape around was embrowned by an overshadowing
cloud, big with the shower which had driven the children to shelter. On other
occasions they went together to school, the boy receiving that encouragement and
example from his companion, in crossing the little brooks which intersected
their path, and encountering cattle, dogs, and other perils, upon their journey,
which the male sex in such cases usually consider it as their prerogative to
extend to the weaker. But when, seated on the benches of the school-house, they
began to con their lessons together, Reuben, who was as much superior to Jeanie
Deans in acuteness of intellect, as inferior to her in firmness of constitution,
and in that insensibility to fatigue and danger which depends on the
conformation of the nerves, was able fully to requite the kindness and
countenance with which, in other circumstances, she used to regard him. He was
decidedly the best scholar at the little parish school; and so gentle was his
temper and disposition, that he was rather admired than envied by the little mob
who occupied the noisy mansion, although he was the declared favourite of the
master. Several girls, in particular (for in Scotland they are taught with the
boys), longed to be kind to and comfort the sickly lad, who was so much cleverer
than his companions. The character of Reuben Butler was so calculated as to
offer scope both for their sympathy and their admiration, the feelings, perhaps,
through which the female sex (the more deserving part of them at least) is more
easily attached.
    But Reuben, naturally reserved and distant, improved none of these
advantages; and only became more attached to Jeanie Deans, as the enthusiastic
approbation of his master assured him of fair prospects in future life, and
awakened his ambition. In