"There was a vessel crossing the wake of the moon at the time, scarce half a mile from the shore; and, assisted by my companion, I began to shout at the top of my lungs, in the hope of being heard by the sailors."-PAGE 232.

cation with the shore. We waited on and on, however, now shouting by turns, and now shouting together; but there was no second reply; and at length, losing hope, we groped our way back to our comfortless bed, just as the tide had again turned on the beach, and the waves began to roll upwards higher and higher at every dash.

"As the moon rose and brightened, the dead seaman became less troublesome; and I had succeeded in dropping as soundly asleep as my companion, when we were both aroused by a loud shout. We started up, and again crept downwards among the crags to the shore; and as we reached the sea, the shout was repeated. It was that of at least a dozen harsh voices united. There was a brief pause followed by another shout; and then two boats, strongly manned, shot round the western promontory, and the men, resting on their oars, turned towards the rock, and shouted yet again. The whole town had been alarmed by the intelligence that two little boys had straggled away in the morning to the rocks of the Southern Sutor, and had not found their way back. The precipices had been from time immemorial a scene of frightful accidents, and it was at once inferred that one other sad accident had been added to the number. True, there were cases remembered of people having been tide-bound in the Doocot Caves, and not much the worse in consequence; but as the caves were inaccessible during neaps,

pedant or coxcomb) did not long keep on the most amicable terms with the new teacher. A fight arose out of some dispute about spelling, which so soon as finished, Miller takes down his cap from the pin, and bids the pedagogue good-bye, having got about as little benefit from his half-dozen preceptors as probably ever did any man of equal eminence.

Hugh Miller is now nearly seventeen years of age: the period has arrived when he must decide what shall be the business of his life. His uncles had expected to see their nephew attaining eminence in some of the learned professions. Their labour was their only capital, yet they would gladly have assisted him in getting to college. But to all their entreaties he pertinaciously demurred. He thought himself destitute of any peculiar fitness for either the legal or the medical professions, and the church was too serious a direction in which to look for his bread, unless he could regard himself as called to the church's proper work. With extreme reluctance Hugh Miller's uncles resigned their nephew to a life of manual labour. Consent, however, was at length wrung from them, and their protegé, whom they would gladly have sent to the university, becomes a mason's apprentice, and may be seen arrayed, not in the gown of the scholar, but in a suit of moleskins, and a pair of heavy hobnailed shoes. Unwilling that labour should wield over him a rod entirely black, the profession of a