certainly in her young affections, to one who was an enemy to GOD and man, a disbeliever of the truth of the Gospel, a disturber of the peace of his country! What course lay before me I knew not. I would not, for my poor sister’s sake, mention the sad truth to my father and mother; for I well knew that their indignation would know no bounds, and that they would probably at once expel her from her home, thus driving her directly into the arms of him, who would certainly be her ruin, both in body and soul. I shrunk from mentioning the subject to my sister herself, for I recollected that I was younger than she, and felt that I had no authority to control her will, if, after knowing the character of the stranger, she should still resolve to cling faithfully to his fortunes. At last, after a sleepless night, and much inward prayer for light to guide me, I determined to take the course which I am sure you will say was a wise one—I resolved to lay the whole case before my best friend and natural adviser, Robert Walker.” [Picture: View of Scaw Fell] CHAPTER XIII. —An unlessoned Girl, unschool’d, unpractis’d; Happy in this she is not yet so old But she may learn; and happier than this, She is not bred so dull but she can learn; Happiest of all, is, that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours, to be directed. SHAKSPERE. “ROBERT WALKER was less surprised at my history (which it took me a long time to tell) than I had expected him to be. In fact he knew almost every thing that was going on in his parish, and people often wondered how he came to know so intimately matters concerning themselves, which they had supposed were closely locked up in their own breasts alone. When I told him of the pestilent doctrines which the stranger was spreading among the miners and others of his flock, he immediately reminded me that he had darkly hinted at this in the sermon which he preached to us before our confirmation; the substance of which I have just related to you. I thought he would have split his sides with laughing when I told him of the way in which Gawen Braithwaite and I had dispersed the assembly by our sudden and unintentional intrusion into their councils; and tapping me playfully on the cheek, while his eyes ran over with tears of mirth, he said, ‘Take care, my good lad, as long as you live, that you never play the devil in any other character than you did last night! He is a _kittle_ customer to deal with, and generally has the best of it in the end with those who meddle too much with his concerns. _Resist_ the devil,’ said he solemnly, ‘resist the devil and he will flee from you—aye,’ he added, smiling once more at the recollection, quite as fast as silly WILLIE TYSON and his man PETER!’ “‘And so they ran, did they?’ continued he, for he could not get the amusing notion out of his head, ‘_very_ fast, eh?’