from the farm, who were most ready to oblige David with their help, although they were still rather unfriendly to the colliginer, as they called him.  But Hugh’s frankness soon won them over, and they all formed within a day or two a very comfortable party of labourers.  They worked very hard; for if the rain should set in before the roof was on, their labour would be almost lost from the soaking of the walls.  They built them of turf, very thick, with a slight slope on the outside towards the roof; before commencing which, they partially cut the windows out of the walls, putting wood across to support the top.  I should have explained that the turf used in building was the upper and coarser part of the peat, which was plentiful in the neighbourhood.  The thatch-eaves of the cottage itself projected over the joining of the new roof, so as to protect it from the drip; and David soon put a thick thatch of new straw upon the little building.  Second-hand windows were procured at the village, and the holes in the walls cut to their size.  They next proceeded to the saw-pit on the estate—­for almost everything necessary for keeping up the offices was done on the farm itself—­where they sawed thin planks of deal, to floor and line the room, and make it more cosie.  These David planed upon one side; and when they were nailed against slight posts all round the walls, and the joints filled in with putty, the room began to look most enticingly habitable.  The roof had not been thatched two days before the rain set in; but now they could work quite comfortably inside; and as the space was small, and the forenights were long, they had it quite finished before the end of November.  David bought an old table in the village, and one or two chairs; mended them up; made a kind of rustic sofa or settle; put a few bookshelves against the wall; had a peat fire lighted on the hearth every day; and at length, one Saturday evening, they had supper in the room, and the place was consecrated henceforth to friendship and learning.  From this time, every evening, as soon as lessons, and the meal which immediately followed them, were over, Hugh betook himself to the cottage, on the shelves of which all his books by degrees collected themselves; and there spent the whole long evening, generally till ten o’clock; the first part alone reading or writing; the last in company with his pupils, who, diligent as ever, now of course made more rapid progress than before, inasmuch as the lessons were both longer and more frequent.  The only drawback to their comfort was, that they seemed to have shut Janet out; but she soon remedied this, by contriving to get through with her house work earlier than she had ever done before; and, taking her place on the settle behind them, knitted away diligently at her stocking, which, to inexperienced eyes, seemed always the same, and always in the same state of progress, notwithstanding that she provided the hose of the whole family, blue and grey, ribbed and plain.  Her