COUSIN WALTER. 353 



painful the reflection that there should be no one to 

 bestow on him the care and attention which he could so 

 lavish on another. 



1 Some eight years ago he resided for a twelvemonth 

 or two in Edinburgh. There was a sister of his father's 

 who had married and settled in Ayrshire well-nigh 

 thirty years before, and between whom and her relatives 

 in the north country, there had been little intercourse 

 from that period. Walter, however, had often heard of 

 his aunt, and that in disposition, especially in her attach- 

 ment to her friends, she very much resembled himself ; 

 and so, setting out from Edinburgh, he walked nearly a 

 hundred miles to pay her a visit. He reached the 

 village in which she resided on the evening of the 

 second day, and on being shown her house, introduced 

 himself to her as a person from Cromarty, who had 

 lately seen her brother. She started at the sound of his 

 voice. " Can it be possible," she asked, " that you are a 

 son of his ?" Walter smiled, and clasping her hand in 

 both his, "I have taken a long walk," he said, "just to 

 see you, and get acquainted with my cousins and your 

 husband." The poor woman was affected to tears. 



' A fine-looking young woman, one of her daughters, 

 entered the apartment. " Come here, Jessie," said the 

 aunt, "and see your cousin, whose kind heart has 

 brought him all the way from the north country to his 

 friends in Ayrshire." Some one cried out in the next 

 room, " Bring me to him, too, mother." It was a poor 

 little girl who had been confined for years to her bed by 

 an affection of the spine. Walter had to sit beside her, 

 and look over all her playthings ; and when he was 

 going to rise, she locked her arms round his neck, and 

 held him fast till she fell asleep. 



' A few days after he was invited with his cousin 



