72 



ACCOUNT OF A BOY 



possession. Nothing else appears to occupy his mind. He 

 literally persecutes the tailor or the shoemaker, until his shoes 

 or his coat is finished. He is their guest morning, noon, and 

 night, until the last stitch is drawn. 



Before leaving Ardclach, I took an opportunity of conver- 

 sing very fully with Miss Mitchell relative to her brother's 

 conduct at the period of his father's death. Her answers to 

 my inquiries on this point, corresponded exactly with the in- 

 formation she was so kind as communicate to me through my ' 

 friend Mr Lauder Dick of Relugas, in March last, and which 

 I transmitted to you immediately on receiving it. She told 

 me, that when her brother was permitted, by her direction, to 

 touch his father's dead body, he shrunk from it with surprise, 

 but without expressing the slightest signs of sorrow. She 

 assures me also, that he felt the body after it was placed in the 

 coffin, but without betraying any emotions of grief. On the 

 evening, however, after her father's funeral, she herself saw him 

 go down to the grave, and pat the turf with both his hands ; but 

 whether he did this from affection, or intended it merely 

 as an imitation of beating down the turf, she feels unable to 

 decide, as she was not near enough to him to discern the 

 expression of his countenance. For several days afterwards, it 

 would appear that he returned repeatedly to the grave ; but 

 gradually discontinued his visits. It is worthy of remark, how- 

 ever, that he has regularly attended every funeral that has since 

 taken place in the same church-yard. The report, therefore, 

 which I have stated at the conclusion of the supplement to 

 Professor Glennie's Account, of his having shed tears over his 

 father's grave, seems entirely without foundation. Miss Mit- 

 chell authorises me to say, that neither on this nor on any 

 other occasion, has she herself seen her brother shew any une- 

 quivocal marks of sorrow for his father's death. Yet her 



friend, 



