He dropped my hand wi' a smile at half-past six o'clock, and after comforting his wife and children a bit I turned my face hameward.

But I was in that mood that I didna care to sit i' a crowded omnibus, and I wanted to be moving wi' my thoughts.

The falling snow and the deserted Green seemed good to me, and I walked on thinking o'er again the deacon's last utterances, for they were wise and good even beyond the man's nature.

That is how I came across Robert Leslie.

I thought he was dead, but I carried him in my arms to the House o' the Humane Society, which, you ken, isna one hundred yards from where Robert fell.