From Ploughshare to Pulpit by Gordon Stables

When Christmas-time came round, Sandie M‘Crae not only felt that he needed a week's rest, but that he had worked hard enough to deserve one. It was therefore with a feeling of intense enjoyment and pleasure that he seated himself in the train, his merry little friend Willie by his side, the train that should soon bear him far away to his own bonnie Highland home and his ain fireside.

Oh, that ain fireside, which nought surrounds save an atmosphere of love, how pleasant it is to think of when far, far away! Sandie had thought of it often and often when hard at work in his little attic, and longed to be there. The loving father, seated in his arm-chair, quietly smoking; the gentle-faced mother, bending over her knitting; his sweet sister Elsie, with a book; the cat and the bawsent-faced collie Tyro.