CHAP. 11.] GLENLAIR CHILDHOOD. 29 



It was a bright sunny day ; lie held it to the sun, and 

 the reflection went round and round the room. He 

 said ' Do look, Maggy, and go for papa and mamma.' 

 I told them both to come, and as they went in James 

 sent the reflection across their faces. It was delightful 

 to see his papa; he was delighted. He asked him, 

 ' What is this you are about, my boy ? ' He said, ' It 

 is the sun, papa ; I got it in with the tin plate/ His 

 papa told him when he was a little older he would 

 let him see the moon and stars, and so he did." Me- 

 thinks I see the laird in those happiest days, standing 

 on some moonlit night on the pavement at the door, 

 pointing skywards with one hand, while the small 

 astronomer is peering from a plaid upon the other arm, 

 and the glad wife is standing by. 1 



In Mr. Dyee's picture of the mother and child we 

 see this open-eyed loving intercourse with the visible 

 universe already begun. And in the accompanying 

 woodcut (p. 30), taken from a contemporary sketch of 

 a "barn ball" at the Harvest-home of 1837, the boy 

 of six years old (instead of looking at the dancer) is 

 totally absorbed in watching the bow of the " violino 

 primo" unshakably determined to make out " the go 

 of that " some day or other. The spirit which after- 



1 There has been preserved amongst the Glenlair papers a chart of 

 the celestial globe, cut out into constellations, which fit each other like 

 the pieces of a child's puzzle. A round hole is made in the cardboard 

 for every star, differing in size so as to show the magnitude of each. 

 The whole is executed with laborious neatness, and it seems probable 

 that we have here the means (whether purchased or made at home) 

 whereby the configuration of the starry heavens was still further im- 

 pressed on " Jamsie's " mind. 



