DONALD MILLER. 59 



firm parapet surmounted the whole. Winter came, and 

 the storms came ; but though the waves broke against 

 the bulwark with as little remorse as against the Sutors, 

 not a stone moved out of its place. Donald had at 

 length fairly triumphed over the sea. 



' The progress of character is fully as interesting a 

 study as the progress of art; and both are curiously 

 exemplified in the history of Donald Miller. Now that 

 he had conquered his enemy, and might realize his long- 

 cherished dream of unbroken leisure, he found that con- 

 stant employment had, through the force of habit, be- 

 come essential to his comfort. His garden was the very 

 paragon of gardens ; and a single glance was sufficient 

 to distinguish his furrow of potatoes from every other 

 furrow in the field ; but now that his main occupation 

 was gone, much time hung on his hands, notwithstand- 

 ing his attentions to both. First he set himself to build 

 a wall quite round his property ; and a very neat one he 

 did build, but unfortunately, when once erected, there 

 was nothing to knock it down again. Then he white- 

 washed his house, and built a new sty for his pig, the 

 walls of which he also white-washed. Then he enclosed 

 two little patches on the side of the stream, to serve as 

 bleaching greens. Then he covered the upper part of 

 his bulwark with a layer of soil, and sowed it with grass. 

 Then he repaired a well, the common property of the 

 town ; then he constructed a path for foot-passengers on 

 the side of a road, which, passing through his garden on 

 the south, leads to Cromarty House. His labours for 

 the good of the public were wretchedly recompensed 

 by at least his more immediate neighbours. They would 

 dip their dirty pails into the well he had repaired, and 

 tell him, when he hinted at the propriety of washing 

 them, that they were no dirtier than they used to be. 



