RAB AND HIS FRIENDS.

ing us how meek and gentle he could be,
and occasionally in his sleep letting us
know that he was demolishing some ad-
versary. He took a walk with me every
day, generally to the Candle-maker Row ;
but he was sombre and mild; declined
doing battle, though some fit cases offered,
and indeed submitted to sundry indig-
nities; and was always very ready to
turn, and came faster back, and trotted
up the stair with much lightness, and went
straight to that door. Jess, the mare, had
been sent with her weather-worn cart to
Howgate, and had doubtless her own dim
and placid meditations and confusions on
the absence of her master and Rab, and
her unnatural freedom from the road and
her cart.

For some days Ailie did well. The
wound healed “by the first intention ;”
for as James said, “ Oor Ailie’s skin’s ower
clean to beil.’’ The students came in, quiet

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