You can have the remainders of the evenings, all the mornings before breakfast, and the greater parts of your half-holidays, for whatever you like to do of another sort." Willie never required any urging to what his father wished.

He became at once more of a student, without becoming much less of a workman--for he found plenty of time to do all he wanted, by being more careful of his odd moments.
One lovely evening in spring, when the sun had gone down and left the air soft, and balmy, and full of the scents which rise from the earth after a shower, and the odours of the buds which were swelling and bursting in all directions, Willie was standing looking out of his open window into the parson's garden, when Mr Shepherd saw him and called to him-- "Come down here, Willie," he said.

"I want to have a little talk with you." Willie got on the wall from the top of his stair, dropped into the stable-yard, which served for the parson's pony as well as the Doctor's two horses, and thence passed into Mr Shepherd's garden, where the two began to walk up and down together.
The year was like a child waking up from a sleep into which he had fallen crying.

Its life was returning to it, fresh and new.

It was as if God were again drawing nigh to His world.