It was a half-holiday, and he stayed to tea, and after it went over
the arm-buildings with Mr. Graeme, revealing such a practical
knowledge of all that was going on, that his entertainer soon saw
his opinion must be worth something whether his fancies were or not.
CHAPTER XXIV.
STEPHEN KENNEDY.
The great comforts of Donal's life, next to those of the world in
which his soul lived--the eternal world, whose doors are ever open
to him who prays--were the society of his favourite books, the
fashioning of his thoughts into sweetly ordered sounds in the lofty
solitude of his chamber, and not infrequent communion with the
cobbler and his wife. To these he had as yet said nothing of what
went on at the castle: he had learned the lesson the cobbler himself
gave him. But many a lesson of greater value did he learn from the
philosopher of the lapstone. He who understands because he
endeavours, is a freed man of the realm of human effort. He who has
no experience of his own, to him the experience of others is a
sealed book. The convictions that in Donal rose vaporous were
rapidly condensed and shaped when he found his new friend thought
likewise.
By degrees he made more and more of a companion of Davie, and such
was the sweet relation between them that he would sometimes have him
in his room even when he was writing. When it was time to lay in
his winter-fuel, he said to him--
"Up here, Davie, we must have a good fire when the nights are long;
the darkness will be like solid cold.
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