The next day being Sunday, as usual I went to see the Dominie and Mr Turnbull. I arrived at the school just as all the boys were filing off, two and two, for church, the advance led by the , and the rear brought up by the Dominie in person, and I accompanied them. The Dominie appeared and out of spirits—hardly exchanging a word with me during our walk. When the service was over he ordered the usher to take the boys home, and remained with me in the churchyard, surveying the tombstones, and occasionally muttering to himself. At last the congregation , and we were alone.  
“Little did I think, Jacob,” said he, at last, “that when I such care upon thee in thy childhood, I should be rewarded as I have been! Little did I think that it would be to the boy who was left that I should pour out my soul when , and find in him that sympathy which I have long lost, by the removal of those who were once my friends! Yes, Jacob, those who were known to me in my youth—those few in whom I and leant upon—are now lying here in dust, and the generation hath passed away; and I now rest upon thee, my son, whom I have directed in the right path, and who hast, by the of God, continued to walk straight in it. Verily, thou art a to me, Jacob; and though young in years, I feel that in thee I have received a friend, and one that I may in. Bless thee, Jacob! bless thee, my boy! and before I am laid with those who have gone before me, may I see thee prosperous and happy! Then I will sing the Nunc Dimittis, then will I say, ‘Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace.’”
 
“I am happy, sir,” replied I, “to hear you say that I am of any comfort to you, for I feel truly grateful for all your kindness to me; but I wish that you did not require comfort.”
 
“Jacob, in what part of a man’s life does he not require comfort and ; yea, even from the time when, as a child, he buries his weeping face in his mother’s lap till the hour that summons him to his account? Not that I consider this world to be, as many have described it, a ‘vale of tears’; No, Jacob; it is a beautiful world, a glorious world, and would be a happy world, if we would only restrain those senses and those passions with which we have been endowed, that we may enjoy the beauty, the variety, the inexhaustible of a gracious heaven. All was made for and for happiness; but it is we ourselves who, by excess, that which otherwise were pure. Thus, the fainting traveller may drink and from the , spring; but should he rush heedlessly into it, he muddies the source, and the waters are those of bitterness. Thus, Jacob, was wine given to cheer the heart of man; yet, didst not thou witness me, thy preceptor, debased by ? Thus, Jacob, were the affections implanted in us as a source of sweetest happiness, such as those which now in my breast towards thee; yet hast thou seen me, thy preceptor, by yielding to the infatuation and imbecility of threescore years, dote, in my , upon a , and turn the sweet affections into a source of and .” I answered not, for the words of the Dominie made a strong impression upon me, and I was weighing them in my mind. “Jacob,” continued the Dominie, after a pause, “next to the book of life, there is no subject of contemplation more salutary than the book of death, of which each stone now around us may be considered as a page, and each page contains a lesson. Read that which is now before us. It would appear hard that an only child should have been torn away from its parents, who have thus imperfectly expressed their anguish on the tomb; it would appear hard that their delight, their solace, the object of their daily care, of their waking thoughts, of their last imperfect recollections as they sank into sleep, of their only dreams, should thus have been taken from them; yet did I know them, and Heaven was just and merciful. The child had weaned them from their God; they lived but in him; they were without God in the world. The child alone had their affections, and they had been lost had not He in His mercy removed it. Come this way, Jacob.” I followed the Dominie till he stood before another tombstone in the corner of the churchyard. “This stone, Jacob, marks the spot where lies the of one who was my earliest and dearest friend—for in my youth I had friends, because I had , and little thought that it would have pleased God that I should do my duty in that station to which I have been called. He had one fault, which proved a source of misery through life, and was the cause of an untimely death. He was of a revengeful . He never forgave an injury, forgetting, poor, sinful mortal, for how much he had need to be forgiven. He quarrelled with his relations; he was shot in a with his friend! I mention this, Jacob, as a lesson to thee; not that I feel myself to be thy preceptor, for I am , but out of kindness and love towards thee, that I might persuade thee to correct that fault in thy disposition.”
 
“I have already made friends with Mr Drummond, sir,” answered I; “but still your admonition shall not be thrown away.”
 
“Hast thou, Jacob? then is my mind much relieved. I trust thou no long............