Scotland/Scots > Wilson's tales of the Borders and of Scotland > Volume 3

276
TALES OF THE BORDERS.
employment; and week is only known from week by tlie
intervention of Sabbath repose. Suffice it, therefore, to say,
that the second season passed away like the first, in frugal
living and indefatigable exertion, and left our hero, at its
close, the same uncorrupted, simple-hearted, and generous-
minded youth, as when he first left the shadow of his father’s
door. His dress and his manners were very little altered.
Amid the hum and the bustle of thousands, wealthy and
toiling after wealth, he was an individual apart—a hermit
standing on the rock, and listening to the roar of life’s bil¬
lowing ocean, but launching not his bark on its dim and
dangerous waters.
His delicacy made him feel acutely, that the expenses
which he had necessarily incurred, must weigh heavily on
those upon whose open, but necessarily circumscribed
bounty, he depended. It was, therefore, agreed on, at his
own suggestion, to open a school for a season, in some one
of the neighbouring villages. He hoped, by this means, to
be enabled to raise a small fund for future exigencies, and
to be indebted to his own industry for what necessity had
hitherto obliged him to be dependent for on the bounty of
others. Alas! this commendable design was but the pro¬
tracting of a course of study already too severe for his tender
and delicate constitution.
The scheme was, however, immediately acted on. A
school in the village of Sauchieburn was opened, and, in a
brief space, everything succeeded to the utmost of his
expectations—for the school-room speedily began to fill;
and, by a conscientious discharge of his duty to his pupils,
the affection of their parents began to flow towards him.
Although the quarterly payments were small, he contrived
timidity of his disposition, conjoined with the fear of mak¬
ing acquaintances which might lead him into expenses, he