“Mother!” said Evan, wishing to arouse her attention. “Look, mother!”

“Good day, Mrs. Mackay,” added Major Graham, in a voice of great consideration, while she languidly turned her head towards the door. “I have come to thank you for restoring my purse this morning.”

“You are kindly welcome, Sir! What else could we do!” replied she, in a feeble, tremulous voice. “The money was yours, and the sooner it went out of our hands the better.”

“It was perfectly safe while it stayed there,” added Major Graham, not affecting to speak in a homely accent, nor putting on any airs of condescension at all, but sitting down on the old chest as if he had never sat on any thing but a chest in his life before, and looking at the clean bare floor with as much respect as if it had been a Turkey carpet. [171] ]“Your little boy’s pocket seems to be as safe as the Bank of Scotland.”

“That is very true, Sir! My boy is honest; and it is well to keep a good conscience, as that is all he has in this world to live for. Many have a heavy conscience to carry with a heavy purse; but these he need not envy. If we are poor in this world, we are rich in faith; and I trust the money was not even a temptation to Evan, because he has learned from the best of all teachers, that it would ‘profit him nothing to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.’”

“True, Mrs. Mackay! most true! We have come here this morning to request that you and he will do me the favour to accept of a small recompense.”

“We are already rewarded, Sir! This has been an opportunity of testifying to our own hearts that we desire to do right in the eye of God. At the same time, it was Providence who kindly directed my son’s steps to the place where that money was lying; and if anything seems justly due to poor Evan, let him have it. My wants are few, and must soon be ended. But oh! when I look at that boy, and think of the long years he may be struggling with poverty and temptation, my heart melts within me, and my whole spirit is broken. Faith itself seems to fail, and I could be a beggar for him now! It is not money I would ask, Sir, because that might soon be spent; but get him some honest employment, and I will thank you on my very knees.”

Evan seemed startled at the sudden energy of his mother’s manner, and tears sprung into his eyes while she spoke with a degree of agitation so different from what he had ever heard before; but he struggled to conceal his feelings, and she continued with increasing emotion,

“Bodily suffering, and many a year of care and sorrow, are fast closing their work on me. The moments are passing away like a weaver’s shuttle; and if I had less anxiety [172] ]about Evan, how blessed a prospect it would appear; but that is the bitterness of death to me now. My poor, poor boy! I would rather hear he was in the way of earning his livelihood, than that he got a hundred a-year. Tell me, Sir!—and oh! consider you are speaking to a dying creature—can you possibly give him any creditable employment, where he might gain a crust of bread, and be independent?”

“I honour your very proper feeling on the subject, Mrs. Mackay, and shall help Evan to the best of my ability,” replied Major Graham, in a tone of seriousness and sincerity. “To judge by these fine geraniums, he must be fond of cultivating plants; and we want an under-gardener in the country; therefore he shall have that situation without loss of time.”