I HAD great strength and activity, and by help of these, and an anxious mind to stimulate them, I got over the ground, so as to sleep the second night within sixteen miles of my journey's end. I overslept myself, however, and it was near eight o’clock next morning ere I saw the smoke of Blackford over the firs. I was startled just at that moment with hearing a most sonorous voice, exerting itself apparently quite near me in some lofty declamation. I halted for an instant, and recognized my good old Dominie, who was coming towards me through the wood, engaged in his usual morning's walk, to his favourite tune of

The worthy enthusiast was so deeply occupied with the book he contrived to hold in his hand, that he was close upon me ere he noticed that any one had crossed his walk; and even then, the sun being in his dim eyes, I believe he would not have recognized his pupil, had I not saluted him with another fragment of the same strain—

On hearing which note, the play of his wooden supporters was arrested with such hasty energy, that the spectacles almost danced off his nose; while strenuously shaking me by the hand, he ejaculated in rapid succession, “Guide us a’!—Mr Matthew himself, as I shall answer! Salve deum genus!—Welcome, thrice welcome, φιληυ ες ϖατριδα γαιαυ.”

The fervour of our first greetings having evaporated, I asked my friend after his own household, and inquired, whether all the family were at home at Blackford? The dominie, dropping a pious tear, informed me, that he had some time ago laid his mother in the grave, and that he was now a solitary being in the world. “As to Blackford,” said he, dashing his sorrow aside, “I suppose you know that the Minister has been in the North for some time. He is not yet returned; but all the rest are at home, and well.