A
deep stillness fell upon the scholars. They dropped all their work, and
gazed at the meeting. The master held out his hand. With awkwardness
and difficulty Andrew presented the hand which had been holding the
crutch; and, not yet thoroughly used to the management of it, staggered
in consequence and would have fallen. But the master caught him in his
arms and carried him to his old seat beside his brother.
"Thank ye, sir," said the boy with another gleamy smile, through which
his thin features and pale, prominent eyes told yet more plainly of sad
suffering--all the master's fault, as the master knew.
"Leuk at the dominie," said Curly to Alec. "He's greitin'."
For Mr Malison had returned to his seat and had laid his head down on
the desk, evidently to hide his emotion.
"Haud yer tongue, Curly. Dinna leuk at him," returned Alec. "He's sorry
for poor Truffey."
Every one behaved to the master that day with marked respect. And from
that day forward Truffey was in universal favour.
Let me once more assert that Mr Malison was not a bad man. The
misfortune was, that his notion of right fell in with his natural
fierceness; and that, in aggravation of the too common feeling with
which he had commenced his relations with his pupils, namely, that they
were not only the natural enemies of the master, but therefore of all
law, theology had come in and taught him that they were in their own
nature bad--with a badness for which the only set-off he knew or could
introduce was blows.
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