Produced by LM Bornath "The Right Stuff" Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton BY IAN HAY DR JOHNSON. Oatmeal, sir? The food of horses in England and of men in Scotland! BOSWELL (_roused at last_). And where, sir, will you find such horses--or such men? _SHILLING EDITION_ William Blackwood & Sons Edinburgh and London 1912 _TO_ _AN INDULGENT CRITIC_ CONTENTS. BOOK ONE. RAW MATERIAL. CHAP. I. "OATMEAL AND THE SHORTER CATECHISM" II. INTRODUCES A PILLAR OF STATE AND THE APPURTENANCES THEREOF III. "ANENT" IV. A TRIAL TRIP V. ROBIN ON DUTY VI. ROBIN OFF DUTY VII. A DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP VIII. OF A PIT THAT WAS DIGGED, AND WHO FELL INTO IT IX. THE POLICY OF THE CLOSED DOOR X. ROBIN'S WAY OF DOING IT BOOK TWO. THE FINISHED ARTICLE. XI. A MISFIRE XII. THE COMPLEAT ANGLER XIII. A HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE XIV. "TO DIE--WILL BE AN _AWFULLY_ BIG ADVENTURE" XV. TWO BATTLES XVI. "_QUI PERD, GAGNE_" XVII. IN WHICH ALL'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD XVIII. A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY BOOK ONE. RAW MATERIAL. CHAPTER ONE. OATMEAL AND THE SHORTER CATECHISM. The first and most-serious-but-one ordeal in the life of Robert Chalmers Fordyce--so Robert Chalmers himself informed me years afterwards--was the examination for the Bursary which he gained at Edinburgh University. A bursary is what an English undergraduate would call a "Schol." (Imagine a Scottish student talking about a "Burse"!) Robert Chalmers Fordyce arrived in Edinburgh pretty evenly divided between helpless stupefaction at the sight of a great city and stern determination not to be imposed upon by the inhabitants thereof. His fears were not as deep-seated as those of Tom Pinch on a similar occasion,--he, it will be remembered, suffered severe qualms from his familiarity with certain rural traditions concerning the composition of London pies,--but he was far from happy. He had never slept away from his native hillside before; he had never seen a town possessing more than three thousand inhabitants; and he had only once travelled in a train. Moreover, he was proceeding to an inquisition which would decide once and for all whether he was to go forth and conquer the world with a university education behind him, or go back to the plough and sup porridge for the rest of his life. To-morrow he was to have his opportunity, and the consideration of how that opportunity could best be gripped and brought to the ground blinded Robin even to the wonders of the Forth Bridge.