In our days there is a slackening of discipline in the training of the young, of which our fathers never would have approved. Children are treated not as those who are unable to judge of what is best for their interests, but as matured men and women who must give their opinion as to what they ought to learn and what not; they must sit in judgment on the merits of their different teachers, while their indulgent parents look on with approval; at the same time everything difficult is removed out of the way of their tender feet. And yet, could these people consider, they are only making the discipline their children must encounter in the world a thing the harder to be borne, since they have not had the benefit of "bearing the yoke in their youth."

But though they could not have reasoned the matter, these old Dissenters in Grey Craigs acted differently, for they knew that man is best developed amid trials and difficulties at the beginning of life, as it is thus he is braced up and strengthened for the struggles and battles he must necessarily meet with in mature years. It is God's way of leading His own, and fitting them for heaven; His school is one of sorrows and defeats, "out of much tribulation" heightening the crown of all joy. And would man be wiser than his Creator? Ah! the "afterward" is blessed when to the chastening

rod His people bow, for the "peaceable fruits of righteousness" are then brought forth.

Effie was also taught amongst these Bible-loving people that no degradation could be attributed to any honest hard-working poverty; nor, on the other hand, was any undue importance to be given to riches, but that to fear God and keep His commandments comprehended the whole duty of man. Thus, amongst these unlearned though honest people the girl saw little that was mean or degrading, whilst the scenes of grandeur and beauty all around her gave to her fine poetical nature, unknown to herself, a feeling of awe and reverence for the Father and God of creation.

In speaking of the training of the young in these days, amongst such people in Scotland, we must not overlook the faithful preaching of the Gospel; we might now think it was hard and severe, for we live in times when men love to listen to smooth things; then it was different, it was law work that was insisted on, and that law work made our Covenanting fathers what they were. Then the Shorter Catechism was the text-book of their theology. They taught it to their children as they sat by their fires on the quiet Sabbath evenings, and often in the morning ere the day's work began. It is the fashion in our times to deride this book on which they set such store; we are wiser now, they say,

E

than teach the young such dry theology: but will the learned and clever men in this generation be able to give us a better than this? We will see.

Over and above this home-training, Effie received from the excellent schoolmaster of Grey Craigs and his sister the foundation of a good and substantial education, for that place, more than the most of others, was favoured by having a man of no ordinary ability for the teaching of the youth, and Effie being a favourite pupil received great advantages in this respect.

CHAPTER VIII.

"A visit to the blacksmith's shop in any country always repays one, and there the gossip of the neighbourhood is usually heard. In Africa it seems to be the same, and idlers always lingered about the blacksmiths." -A Walk Across Africa.

"Free and fair discussion will ever be found the firmest friend to truth." -G. CAMPBELL.

T was October, and the days were growing short, while the skies had the pale colourless hue belonging to that season. A sort of purply haze filled the air, enveloping the dark pine woods in its mantle, and as the sun's rays streamed through the brilliant colouring, birch and hazel groves were subdued and harmonised, while upon the hills hung a silvery mist, and the wind as it swept down in melancholy gusts waved it about in all directions.

It was the evening hour, and the shadows falling silently around had warned the labourers that their time of rest had come; and now the fields were emptied of their busy workers, their cheerful voices. being no longer heard in the still, clear air.

Over the smithy of Grey Craigs the night clouds descended and the fire gleamed stronger and stronger, while the deepening light revealed more distinctly the figures that were gathered around; as the flickering flame gleamed and danced upon the window, the children not yet called home by their careful mothers pressed their faces against the panes, and looked in upon the party, surveying them as they stood and talked around that cheerful blaze. There was an unusual excitement amongst those men that evening. The smith, older looking than when we last saw him, had ceased his work, and the sounds of the anvil ringing on the forge had been silenced for a time. In the centre of the group was a pale, half-starved looking man, who held a paper in his hand, and was proceeding to read it aloud, when Uncle John, who was amongst the number of the bystanders, expostulated with him, for the paper was one of those Radical ones which had been forbidden to be circulated.

"I tell ye, Alec Grieve," he said, "it's against the laws of the land to read the like o' that among us, for they just spread dispeace."

"Let's hear what Grieve has got to say," cried a lad; "it's a bad cause that winna stand a hearing. Light that candle and haud it afore him, Jamie; we would like to hear baith sides o' the question."

"What say ye, smith?" said another one of the