remained looking upwards without taking the least notice of her. When he returned into the house, she was very much displeased with him: 'Mother,' he said, 'I could tell you the reason why I stood still, and why I looked at the sky, if you would only give me a pencil.' She gave him one, and in less than five minutes he laid a bit of paper on her lap with these words written on it: 'Loud o'er my head what awful thunders roll, Let hardened sinners thy just judgments fear.' The old lady, said the writer of this anecdote, repeated them to me herself, and the tears were in her eyes: for I really believe, simple as they are, that she valued these lines, being the first effusion of her son's genius, more than any later beauties which have so charmed all the world besides. Of his early school-days, Sir Walter related the following serio- comic anecdote to Mr Rogers: There was,' said he, 'a boy in my class at school who stood always at the top, nor could I, with all my efforts, supplant him. Day came after day, and still he kept his place do what I would, till at length I observed that, when a question was asked him, he always fumbled with his fingers at a particular button in the lower part of his waistcoat. To remove it, therefore, became expedient in my eyes; and in an evil moment it was removed with a knife. Great was my anxiety to know the success of my measure, and it succeeded too well. When the boy was again questioned, his fingers sought again for the button, but it was not to be found. In his distress he looked down for it; it was to be seen no more than to be felt. He stood confounded, and I took possession of his place; nor did he ever recover it, or ever, I believe, suspect who was the author of his wrong. Often in after-life has the sight of him smote me as I passed by him; and often have I resolved to make him some reparation; but it ended in good resolutions. Though I never renewed my acquaintance with him, I often saw him, for he filled some inferior office in one of the courts of law at Edinburgh. Poor fellow! I believe he is dead: he took early to drinking.' In his early life, Scott of course indulged in the convivial habits then common among the young men of the bar in Edinburgh; but he had the good sense to see the folly of this kind of indulgence, and shook himself free of it. A remarkable saying of his on this subject is recorded in his biography-Depend upon it, of all vices drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.' Sir Walter, as is well known, was a member of a light dragoon volunteer corps in Edinburgh, in 1797. A characteristic anecdote, connected with this part of his life, may be given. The commander of the corps, as not unusually happened, was rather ignorant of his duty, and required to have a card of the movements constantly in his hand. One unfortunate morning-a very cold onehe forgot to bring this monitor along with him, and was of course desperately nonplussed. He could positively do nothing; the troop stood for twenty minutes quite motionless, while he was vainly endeavouring to find the means of supplying the requisite document. At this moment, while the men were all as cold as their own stirrup-irons, and were more like a set of mutes at a funeral than a band of redoubted volunteers, ready to do battle at whatever odds against the might of Gaul, Sir Walter, came limping up, and said to a few of the other officers, in his grave way: 'I think the corpse is rather long in lifting this morning;' a drollery so fit to the occasion and to their feelings, that the whole burst out in a fit of laughing, which speedily communicated to the whole corps. The recollections of Scott's friends present a charming picture of his ordinary life at his summer retreat of Ashestiel on the Tweed, where he had found it necessary to establish himself on account of his duties as sheriff of Selkirkshire, His household, enlivened by four healthy |