“So glad, so glad!” he said with moistening eyes. “He is our own boy—so glad!”
. . . . . .
I may state here at once, that both sums of £60 each, that were paid to Sandie during the next two years, were placed carefully away in the North of Scotland Bank. They would come in handy later on, when he commenced the study of Divinity.
Meanwhile, Sandie relaxed no effort to keep well ahead of his classes. He determined not only to pass his examinations for his Bachelor of Arts degree, but to pass with honours.
With this end in view, I am bound to say that he studied harder than he ought to have done.
Sandie was, however, much reinvigorated in health from his herring-fishing cruises, which he took every summer. But he never sailed again from Blackhive. The memories of the sad deaths of poor Eppie and her wee man were far too painful, and he wished rather they should die away than revive.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
It is the end of the last session of the curriculum. Sandie and several others are to be capped and gowned in the great hall, as they have their degrees conferred upon them.
The ceremony is a very pretty, not to say an impressive one, and the hall is crowded with lady sight-seers, chiefly the friends and relations of the young Masters and Bachelors of Arts.