TENDERNESS AND AFFECTION. 



in recognizing how the ' mould of I cions hold. Miss E was mar- 



antiquity had gathered upon their 

 features,' and in recounting stories 

 of his school-boy days. 'James,' 

 said he to the oldest of the two, a 

 tailor, now upwards of eighty, who 

 in those days had astonished the 

 children, and himself among the 

 number, with displays of superior 

 knowledge, 'you were the first man 

 that ever gave me something like a 

 correct notion of the form of the 

 earth. I knew that it was round, 

 but I thought always that it was 

 round like a shilling, till you told me 

 that it was round like a marble.' 

 'Well, John,' said he to the other, 

 whose face, like his own, had suf- 

 fered severely from small-pox in his 

 childhood ; ' you and I have had 

 one advantage over folk with finer 

 faces theirs have been aye getting 

 the waur, but ours have been aye 

 getting the better o' the wear !' 

 The dining-room of his grand- 

 father's house had a fireplace fitted 

 up behind with Dutch tiles, adorned 

 with various quaint devices, upon 

 which he had used to feast his 

 eyes iu boyish wonder and delight. 

 These he now sought out most 

 diligently, but was grieved to find 

 them all so blackened and be- 

 grimed by the smoke of half-a- 

 century, that not one of his old 

 windmills or burgomasters was 

 visible. To one apartment he felt 

 a peculiar tie, as having been ap- 

 propriated exclusively to his use 

 in his college days, when the love 

 of solitary study was at times a 

 passion. But the most interesting 

 visit of all was to Barnsmuir, a 

 place a few miles from Anstruther, 

 on the way to Crail. In his school- 

 boy days it had been occupied by 

 Capt. K , whose eldest daugh- 

 ter rode in daily on a little pony 

 to the school at Anstruther. Dr. 

 Chalmers was then a boy of from 

 twelve to fourteen years of age, 

 but he was not too young for an 

 attachment of a singularly tena- 



ried (I believe while he was yet at 

 college) to Mr. F , and his op- 

 portunities of seeing her in after- 

 life were few, but that early im- 

 pression never faded from his heart. 

 At the time of his visit to Anstru- 

 ther in 1845, she had been dead for 

 many years, but, at Dr. Chalmers's 

 particular request, her younger sis- 

 ter met him at Barnsmuir. Having 

 made the most affectionate inquiries 



about Mrs. F and her family, 



he inquired particularly about her 

 death, receiving with deep emotion 

 the intelligence that she had died 

 in the full Christian hope, and that 

 some of his own letters to her sister 

 had served to soothe and comfort 

 her latest hours. "Mrs. W " 



said he eagerly, "is there a portrait 

 of your sister anywhere in this 

 house ?" She took him to a room, 

 and pointed to a profile which hung 

 upon the wall. He planted himself 

 before it gazed on it with intense 

 earnestness took down the pic- 

 ture, took out his card, and, by two 

 wafers fixed it firmly on the back 

 of the portrait, exactly opposite to 

 the face. Having replaced the like- 

 ness, he stood before it and burst 

 into a flood of tears, accompanied 

 by the warmest expressions of at- 

 tachment. After leaving the house, 

 he sauntered in silence round the 

 garden, buried in old recollections, 

 heaving a sigh occasionally, and 

 muttering to himself "More than 

 forty years ago!" 



JEFFREY'S PLAYFULNESS AND 

 AFFECTION. 



The gentle and playful disposition 

 of the distinguished reviewer of the 

 Edinburgh, is finely illustrated in 

 the following letter to his grand- 

 child: 



"My sonsy Nancy! I love you 

 very much, and think very often of 

 your dimples and your pimples, and 

 your funny little plays, and all your 

 pretty ways; and I send you my 



