“CHUMMY” BLACKIE’S HIT.

Wairoa Bell, Volume 5, Issue 371, 13 November 1896, Page 13

“CHUMMY” BLACKIE’S HIT.

A young student, preparing for his degree in classics, was spending a little time at Braemar, He had gone up to the Lion’s Face, and was lying beside a path reading the third book of Virgil’s ‘ HSneid,’ aloud, Suddenly he felt the touch of a stick on his shoulder, and turning about, saw a tall, lean man, with a shepherd’s plaid thrown loosely around his shoulders, by his side. ‘ Ye’re reading Virgil, laddie,’ said the man. * Yes, sir,’ ‘ Let me hear you translate this,’ he continued, and in a wonderful way he rolled off a dozen lines of the poet, chosen at xandom, The young man did his best to render it into English, and then parsed and scanned the lines, in a faulty way, he thought. But the strange man was pleased to commend the student’s effort. Then the two walked together down to Castieto.n, the stranger talking eloquently and most instructively of the writings of the Greeks and Romans, When their ways parted, the man said : ! I suppose you don’t know who I am V ‘ No, sir,’ the student answered. ‘ Well, I am Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh I daresay yon have heard of me ?’ e Oh, very often, indeed.’ ■ Ay, ay/ said the professor, slowly, and thoughtfully And I daresayye’ve heard that many folk think I am a wee bit cracked, tapping his forehead with his finger ; ‘ but never forget, laddie, that, as Tam Chalmers once said, a crack often Sets in the light,’