The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

57^ ^-^^ Highland Monthly.
" There now, there now ; you must not excite me, my
boy ; that is a first condition of my remaining alive.
Recollect that, my son. My heart is weak and diseased,
Pr Grant tells me— I implored him to speak straight and
honest, and he did so, after I had convinced him that the
worst would be no news to me. In the circumstances
Davie— I have been thinking the matter over carefully—
you had better leave Edinburgh alone for a time. You
are young, and your studies, from the industrious way you
read up, cannot suffer much for the loss of one session ; it
will only be one."
"All right, father."
" Dr Grant, in fact, suggested that you could not be
better employed than keeping your old dad alive. At
least you can relieve me of worry in connection with those
floods and other business matters, at which Richard is no
good ; and, above all, see that I have as much peace and
quietness as possible. Death is hovering about, and I
must be prepared, as I hope to be, when he knocks !"
" Father, it is terrible to hear you talk thus—terrible !
Why did you not, for all our sakes, take my advice, and
endure doubt, which is, you know, never severed
from hope, rather than face this cruel verdict of doom ?''
" Ah ! that is the way of youth ; but, you see, I am old,
and, therefore, matter of fact. When one gets up in years,
dear boy, a sensible man prefers to face the truth at its
worst, and hope only for the next world. Whoever wrote
' where ignorance is bliss,' and so on, should have been
pilloried as a rank criminal in the folly he preached.
What say you ?"
" Don't joke, father."
"That is just what I am going to do— ^joke and laugh
unless you, as my private physician,
all the day long ; and
don't put on a more cheerful face, you will be dismissed
forthwith."
About the laird's manner there was an infectiousness
which made converts to his every mood ; and as the con-
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