He had nearly finished his letter when Jessie came up to him and said her father was going to read a sermon as usual on Sunday evening; would he take his letter away and finish it, or would he stay and listen with the rest of the household? George preferred to stay.
"You had better stop and hearken," said Mr. Lindsay. "It's no mony sermons you're like to hear up the Darling, and I hope this one will do you good. Pass me my spectacles, Amy, and find me out my place. I've read the book through so often, that I'm no clear about where I left off, but you may keep mind of it better."
George had always felt something wanting in the little religious service which marked the difference between Sabbath and ilkaday in the Scottish household of Hugh Lindsay, and this evening he felt it more than ever. In such country situations as this of Branxholm there seems a want of some simple and familiar liturgy to express the thanksgivings and the supplications of the household; but the Scottish system of extempore, or a least original and unwritten, prayer, allows of no set form of worship, where there is no minister to conduct it. There is certainly latitude given to private persons, but Hugh Lindsay had no gift in prayer, being a man rather slow of speech and indisposed to make any extra-
