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Thus engaged, he appeared, sitting in his own recess, quiet and

absorbed enough; but that blue eye of his had a habit of leaving the

outlandish-looking gra

upon us, his fellow-students, with a curious intensity of

observation: if caught, it would be instantly withdrawn; yet ever

and anon, it returned searchingly to our table I wondered what it

meant: I wondered, too, at the punctual satisfaction he never

failed to exhibit on an occasion that seemed to me of small moment,

namely, my weekly visit to Morton school; and still more was I

puzzled when, if the day was unfavourable, if there was snow, or

rain, or high wind, and his sisters urged ht of their solicitude, and encourage ard to the ele as you would make her," he would say:

"she can bear a mountain blast, or a shower, or a few flakes of

snow, as well as any of us Her constitution is both sound and

elastic;--better calculated to endure variations of climate than

ood deal tired, and not a little

weather-beaten, I never dared complain, because I saw that to murmur

would be to vex him: on all occasions fortitude pleased him; the

reverse was a special annoyance