lamp, of use at least as a landmark to solitary travellers—­who miss it nowadays, for it burns no more—­she hovered over him, nor did she deride his hopeless efforts, but rather, as she saw him go from black to gray and from gray to white in her service, were her luminous eyes sorrowful because she was not for him, and she bent impulsively toward him, so that once or twice in a long life he touched her fingers, and a heavenly spark was lit, for he had risen higher than himself, and that is literature.

He knew that oblivion was at hand, ready to sweep away his pages almost as soon as they were filled (Do we not all hear her besom when we pause to dip?), but he had done his best and he had a sense of humor, and perhaps some day would come a pupil of whom he could make what he had failed to make of himself.  That prodigy never did come, though it was not for want of nursing, and there came at least, in succession most maddening to Mr. Cathro, a row of youths who could be trained to carry the Hugh Blackadder.  Mr. Ogilvy’s many triumphs in this competition had not dulled his appetite for more, and depressed he was at the prospect of a reverse.  That it was coming now he could not doubt.  McLauchlan, who was to be Rev., had a flow of words (which would prevent his perspiring much in the pulpit), but he could no more describe a familiar scene with the pen than a milkmaid can draw a cow.  The Thrums representatives were sometimes as little gifted, it is true, and never were they so well exercised, but this Tommy had the knack of it, as Mr. Ogilvy could not doubt, for the story of his letter-writing had been through the glens.

“Keep up your spirits,” Mr. Lorrimer had said to Mm as they walked together to the fray, “Cathro’s loon may compose the better of the two, but, as I understand, the first years of his life were spent in London, and so he may bogle at the Scotch.”

But the Dominie replied, “Don’t buoy me up on a soap bubble.  If there’s as much in him as I fear, that should be a help to him instead of a hindrance, for it will have set him a-thinking about the words he uses.”

And the satisfaction on Tommy’s face when the subject of the essay was given out, with the business-like way in which he set to work, had added to the Dominie’s misgivings; if anything was required to dishearten him utterly it was provided by Cathro’s confident smile.  The two Thrums ministers were naturally desirous that Tommy should win, but the younger of them was very fond of Mr. Ogilvy, and noticing his unhappy peeps through the door dividing the rooms, proposed that it should be closed.  He shut it himself, and as he did so he observed that Tommy was biting his pen and frowning, while McLauchlan, having ceased to think, was getting on nicely.  But it did not strike Mr. Dishart that this was worth commenting on.

“Are you not satisfied with the honors you have already got, you greedy man?” he said, laying his hand affectionately on Mr. Ogilvy, who only sighed for reply.