Once, indeed, this custom occasioned some annoyance to
his master, whom he had accompanied to a shooting-hut in the moors,
nicknamed 'Grouse Hall,' where the unfortunate laird was detained by
an intolerable fit of gout; a circumstance not apt to engender
patience and resignation, especially when, from the other side of the
cloth partition which divided the single apartment of the hut, he
heard bursts of laughter pealing forth in succession--for John Dickson
had managed to carry off a copy of Don Quixote to the moors.
When the younger sons of the family were sent to college in Edinburgh,
John was chosen to accompany them. Let us now see how he conducted
himself in this new and trying field; for trying it is. Country lads,
in coming to a large town, meet with many temptations, and by these,
hundreds of them fall. They cannot resist petty attractions to
amusement and misspending of time. They enjoy themselves while they
should work. They take to fun, instead of to labour. Well; to which
did our hero attach himself? To regular, hard work, to be sure. He had
the good sense to see, that here was his chance of getting on in the
world.
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