Few of his clerks are more alert of movement than he.
Much the same may be said of Farmer Pitcairn and his wife.

Possibly there is an additional wrinkle or two on their homely faces, but their hearts are as genial and as kindly as ever.

They love Tom Gordon as if he were their own son, and he fully returns the affection they feel for him.
And how has it been with Tom during those four years?
Well, he has had his shadow and sunshine, like the rest of us, but there has been far more of the latter than the former.

How could it be otherwise, when I tell you that he has stood as firm as a rock upon the principles that were implanted in his heart and soul by his noble mother?
He could never forget her teachings, which were added to by other wise and good persons with whom he was thrown in contact later.
Now, Tom Gordon became what I call a healthy, sensible Christian youth.

He was not the good boy we used to read about in the Sunday-school books, who mopes around, forever preaching a sermon whenever he opens his lips, and finding a "lesson" in everything, even the leap of a grasshopper.