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Rh a bonnie bit of property, and ken weel how to make the best o't, I see no occasion for ye to fash your thumb with by-ordinar learning. If ye can read your Bible and the papers, and have a good hand o' write, and can cast accounts so as to keep you from either cheating or being cheated, it is just as much as can be expected o' you wi' your opportunities."

"But, Mrs. Lindsay," said Amy, who entered the room at the moment, "why should Allan be inferior in these things to his brothers who are now at school?"

"He'll never be inferior," said the mother. "No, Allan has the best headpiece of the lot of them, and is no to be left behind the hand; but I was just saying, that it does not need much book learning to farm the land and mind the stock and sheep, and there's a hantle things that were very befitting to a gentleman and real scholar like your father, that it would be mair fash than profit for Allan to learn, wi' his father needing him at every turn for his help and his counsel."

"But, mother, will not my help and my counsel be of more worth to my father the more I know?" said Allan.

"No doubt, no doubt," said the mother, but she said it doubtfully, "that would depend on whatna' kind of things they are, but there seems