We console ourselves with the higher thought, that if Scotland is worse, the world is better.

Yea, even they by whom the offence came, and who have first to reap the woe of that offence, because they did the will of God to satisfy their own avarice in laying land to land and house to house, shall not reap their punishment in having their own will, and standing therefore alone in the earth when the good of their evil deeds returns upon it; but the tears of men that ascended to heaven in the heat of their burning dwellings shall descend in the dew of blessing even on the hearts of them that kindled the fire.--'Something too much of this.' Robert lifted the latch, and walked into the cottage.

It was not quite so strange to him as it would be to most of my readers; still, he had not been in such a place before.

A girl who was stooping by the small peat fire on the hearth looked up, and seeing that he was lame, came across the heights and hollows of the clay floor to meet him.

Robert spoke so faintly that she could not hear.
'What's yer wull ?' she asked; then, changing her tone,--'Eh! ye're no weel,' she said.