



Produced by LM Bornath





"The Right Stuff"


Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton


BY

IAN HAY



DR JOHNSON. Oatmeal, sir? The food of horses in England and of men in
Scotland!

BOSWELL (_roused at last_). And where, sir, will you find such
horses--or such men?



_SHILLING EDITION_



William Blackwood & Sons
Edinburgh and London
1912




_TO_

_AN INDULGENT CRITIC_




CONTENTS.


BOOK ONE.

RAW MATERIAL.


CHAP.

      I. "OATMEAL AND THE SHORTER CATECHISM"
     II. INTRODUCES A PILLAR OF STATE AND THE APPURTENANCES THEREOF
    III. "ANENT"
     IV. A TRIAL TRIP
      V. ROBIN ON DUTY
     VI. ROBIN OFF DUTY
    VII. A DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP
   VIII. OF A PIT THAT WAS DIGGED, AND WHO FELL INTO IT
     IX. THE POLICY OF THE CLOSED DOOR
      X. ROBIN'S WAY OF DOING IT


BOOK TWO.

THE FINISHED ARTICLE.


     XI. A MISFIRE
    XII. THE COMPLEAT ANGLER
   XIII. A HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE
    XIV. "TO DIE--WILL BE AN _AWFULLY_ BIG ADVENTURE"
     XV. TWO BATTLES
    XVI. "_QUI PERD, GAGNE_"
   XVII. IN WHICH ALL'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD
  XVIII. A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY




BOOK ONE.

RAW MATERIAL.




CHAPTER ONE.

OATMEAL AND THE SHORTER CATECHISM.


The first and most-serious-but-one ordeal in the life of Robert Chalmers
Fordyce--so Robert Chalmers himself informed me years afterwards--was
the examination for the Bursary which he gained at Edinburgh University.
A bursary is what an English undergraduate would call a "Schol."
(Imagine a Scottish student talking about a "Burse"!)

Robert Chalmers Fordyce arrived in Edinburgh pretty evenly divided
between helpless stupefaction at the sight of a great city and stern
determination not to be imposed upon by the inhabitants thereof. His
fears were not as deep-seated as those of Tom Pinch on a similar
occasion,--he, it will be remembered, suffered severe qualms from his
familiarity with certain rural traditions concerning the composition of
London pies,--but he was far from happy. He had never slept away from
his native hillside before; he had never seen a town possessing more
than three thousand inhabitants; and he had only once travelled in a
train.

Moreover, he was proceeding to an inquisition which would decide once
and for all whether he was to go forth and conquer the world with a
university education behind him, or go back to the plough and sup
porridge for the rest of his life. To-morrow he was to have his
opportunity, and the consideration of how that opportunity could best be
gripped and brought to the ground blinded Robin even to the wonders of
