These early associations hae a charm about them that's very apt to lead a person off his direct road; "_Patriæ fumus igne alieno luculentior_"--the very smoke o' our father's fireside is clearer than anither's flame. How bright, then, maun the virtue and honour o' a father and mother appear to a dutiful and affectionate son! I was stating, at the time when I was seduced into that pleasant episode, that my father kept up a daily inspection o' the leucophlegmatic face o' my predecessor, Jedediah Cameron; comparing, with, the greatest diligence, the aqueous symptoms there discernible, with the description given by his oracle, Dr Buchan; and, as his hopes strengthened, edging me, by slow degrees, into the dominie's desk, and the schoolmaster's chair o' authority, as the friendly and gratuitous assistant o' the dying man. But my father had mair sense than to trust, entirely and allenarly, in an affair o' sae gigantic importance, to ony dead authority. He was at the heels o' Dr Dennistoun, our parish physician, as often as that worthy man would permit his approach; and it was sometimes said, though in a jocular way--and nae man likes a joke better than I do--that he consulted the doctor as the farmer does the barometer, with a view to a guid crop. But, were this even _vero verius, certo certius_, how could my parent be blamed for being industrious? Unless ye thresh and grind, ye hae little chance o' a dinner--"_Ni purgas et molas, non comedes_;" an auld saying o' Diogenianus, particularly applicable to my father, who had to support, by his industry, an idle sou--_bos in stabulo_--long, bare-boned, ill-filled up, as hungry and voracious as a Cyclops, and never weel-dined but on the day o' a dead-chack. I might blame my respectable parent for consulting Dr Dennistoun about expected deaths and burials, if mortals could avoid ony o' the twa; but we hae nae Elijahs in thae days, "to be taken up in a whirlwind of fire, and in a chariot of fiery horses." Death comes to a'--_mors omnibus communis_; and Jedediah Cameron--bless him!--had nae chance o' bein made an exception; otherwise my lank wame and lean cheeks stood a puir chance o' bein sae weel filled up as they afterwards came to be, when I held his three offices. CHAPTER II. A KIND PROVIDENCE SMILES ON MY PARENT'S SOLICITUDE.