into the service. Before Mr Graham returned,
every one had done his part except Sheltie, who, excellent
at asking questions for himself, had a very poor memory
for the answers to those of other people, and was in
consequence often a keepie in. He did not generally
heed it much, however, for the master was not angry
with him on such occasions, and they gave him an opportunity
of asking in his turn a multitude of questions of
his own.
When he entered, he found Malcolm reading The Tempest
and Sheltie sitting in the middle of the waste schoolroom,
with his elbows on the desk before him, and his head
and the Shorter Catechism between them; while in the
farthest corner sat Mr Stewart, with his eyes fixed
on the ground, murmuring his answerless questions to
himself.
“Come up, Sheltie,” said Mr Graham, anxious
to let the boy go. “Which of the questions
did you break down in today?”
“Please, sir, I cudna rest i’ my grave
till the resurrection,” answered Sheltie, with
but a dim sense of the humour involved in the reply.
“‘What benefits do believers receive from
Christ at death?’” said Mr Graham, putting
the question with a smile.
“’The souls of believers are at their
death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately
pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united
to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection,’”
replied Sheltie, now with perfect accuracy; whereupon
the master, fearing the outbreak of a torrent of counter
questions, made haste to dismiss him.
“That’ll do, Sheltie,” he said.
“Run home to your dinner.”
Sheltie shot from the room like a shell from a mortar.
He had barely vanished when Mr Stewart rose and came
slowly from his corner, his legs appearing to tremble
under the weight of his hump, which moved fitfully
up and down in his futile attempts to utter the word
resurrection. As he advanced, he kept heaving
one shoulder forward, as if he would fain bring his
huge burden to the front, and hold it out in mute
appeal to his instructor; but before reaching him
he suddenly stopped, lay down on the floor on his
back, and commenced rolling from side to side, with
moans and complaints. Mr Graham interpreted the
action into the question— How was such
a body as his to rest in its grave till the resurrection
—perched thus on its own back in the coffin?
All the answer he could think of was to lay hold of
his hand, lift him, and point upwards. The poor
fellow shook his head, glanced over his shoulder at
his hump, and murmured “Heavy, heavy!”
seeming to imply that it would be hard for him to
rise and ascend at the last day.
He had doubtless a dim notion that all his trouble
had to do with his hump.
