Page:History of Jock Haxton.pdf/6



6        was certain, and the incovenience contin- gent, or at all events remote. With him "the day was sufficient for the evil of it" and so far all was well; only he at times contrived-- as other people thought some- what indiscreetly--to crowd into the com- pass of a single day, a few items of annoy- ance beyond its actual share. Under all these circumstances, Jock was destined for a packman—-a sort of life to which he felt was aversion than almost any other. In pretty exact proportion to the kindness of the children, was Jock doomed in the days of his boyhood to experience the hos- tility of the parents. His convivial powers if the expression is applicable at so early a period of life, were acknowledged; but the poor fellow, it was sometimes insin- uated, had more of pleasantry than princip- le, and he was in consequence debarred access, and that with no great ceremony, to almost every family in the neighbour- hood. But the parents, as Ovid beautifully expresses it, we forget the exact words of        the original, but every pedant can quote them forbade what it was impossible to        prevent so that Jock still continued, after all, the centre of attraction, Among other families, that of the minister was in his immediate vicinity. It consisted of three