Untitled - Electric Scotland

io LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. i.
completely doubled inwards. However, the assurance was given
that there was good hope; they could in time be brought to a
proper shape. In time ! Alas ! it was over those words that
my poor mother wept, for she knew that they expressed a
suffering infancy,
and a childhood debarred from childhood s
active enjoyment. She was full of faith and love, and perhaps
God whispered to her heart that by those very means He would
best form her child for the work He destined for him ; for
when she left her room to rejoin the little circle, which never
felt right when she was absent, she brought with her the usual
gentle cheerfulness ;
and the only% outward sign of the misfortune
was that the baby Archie was fondled and spoken of with an
inexpressible tenderness. She was the most submissive of
women, and so she found rest to the disquietude of her heart.
She knew her husband to be the most energetic of men, and,
thoroughly believing in him, she felt sure that all that could be
done would be done. Many were the visits the baby received
before he was a month old in the little apartment in which the
old nurse held her court ; but his first appearance in publicthat
is to say, his christening was the event to which we, the
younger branches of the family, looked forward with the greatest
interest. At length the day appointed arrived the loth of
February 1812. Our mother was sufficiently recovered to receive
her friends, and the usual little circle was gathered round her,
while all her children, except the eldest, who had gone to
Harrow after the Christmas holidays, dressed in their best,
with a little more than the usual amount of watchfulness
gazed
on the well-remembered ceremony which added a new member
to the visible Church of Christ and a new name to the chorus
which already filled the nursery. The mysterious large china
bowl occupied once again its conspicuous place in the drawing-
room, making the centre of the solemn group,
where the father
held up his infant, Archibald Campbell, to receive his baptism
from the hands of the friendly minister of the Old Church of
St. Giles , Dr. Thomas MacKnight, who had come once more
to perform his loving office. The gentle mother and the seven
brothers and sisters encircled him. The newly named Archibald
Campbell was a : lovely baby his long robes hid the poor little
feet and if ; there was any difference in the welcome given to
him from that which greeted his it predecessors, was only that
it was more tender and loving; and as our mother passed her