Show A VISIT TO SCOTLAND laurenco Ian Lau reneo Hut suttons tons ef f VIA vint kirst trip to that country laurence buttons Hut tons recollections ot of his boyhood are in st nicholas under the title of A boy 1 I 1 knew ills his earliest visit to scotland was made when he was but 4 or 5 years q i ge and aad long before he had assumed MIS afie dignity of trousers or had bad been sent to sc school h ool his fil father h had g gone 0 n e to th the old d h homo 0 me atis phedre as bedoy at st A andrews w h hurriedly u r r upon it the receipt of the news ot of the serious illness of the boys grandmother who died before they reached her naturally the boy has little recollection of that sad month of december spent in his grandmothers house except that it was waa sad the weather was cold and wet the house even under ordinary circumstances could not have hav e been a very cheerful one tor for a youngster who had no companions of his own ago age it looked out upon the german ocean occa n which at that time ot of the year was always in a rage or in the sulks and the house was called peep 0 day because it received th ehfe very first r rays ays of the sun as he rose upon the british isles the boys chief amusement ment was the of flour scones and vat pat cakes to an old goat that lived in the neighborhood and the dally daily walks with life his grandfather who seemed to find some little comfort and entertainment in his grandsons childish prattle brattle he was then almost the only grandchild and the old man was very proud of his manner and appearance and particularly amused at certain gigantic efforts on the boys part to adapt his own short legs to the strides of his big seniors long ones after they had bad interviewed the goat and had watched the wrecks with which tich the wild shore was strewn and had inspected the castle in ruins and the ruins of the cathedral the boy would gaze upon his grandmothers new made grave and his own name in full fuli a common name in the family upon the family tomb in the old all of 0 which must have been very cheering to the boy although he could not read it tor for himself and then which was better they would stand hand band in hand for a time in front of 0 a candy show window in which was displayed a little regiment of lead soldiers marching in double file toward an imposing and unconquerable lead fortress on the heights of barley sugar of this spectacle they never tired and they used to discuss how the boy would arrange them it if they belonged to him with a sneaking hope on the boys part that some day they were to be his very own at the urgent request of the grandfather the american contingent remained in st andrews until the end of 0 the year and the boy still remembers vividly and he will never forget the dismal failure of auld lang syne as sung by the family with clasped hands as the clock struck and tie the new year began he sat up for the occasion or rather was waked up tor for the occasion and of all that family group be has been for a decade or more the only survivor the mother of the house housa was but lately dead the eldest son and his son eon were going the next jay day to the other side of the world and every voice broke before the familiar verse came to art an end |