em was, that he had been from childhood, till the gray was
thickening on his hair, in the service of an English family, who had
come into possession, and constantly resided on, a handsome estate in
his native parish in Dumbartonshire.

Through their interest, he had been appointed to the office of power
and trust in which I made his acquaintance. John was one of my
earliest friends, though the remnant of his name was never heard nor
inquired after by me. The great town has now grown much nearer his
toll-house, which then stood alone on the country road, with no
building in sight but the school, at which I, and some two score of
the surrounding juveniles, were supposed to be trained in wisdom's
ways, by the elder brother of our parish minister. A painstaking,
kindly teacher he was; but the toll-house was a haunt more pleasant to
our young fancies than his seminary. John was the general friend and
confidant of all the boys; he settled our disputes, made the best tops
and balls for us, taught us a variety of new tricks in play, and
sometimes bestowed upon us good advices, which were much sooner
forgotten. John never married. He had a conviction, which was
occasionally avowed, that all women were troublesome; and whether this
evidence be considered _pro_ or _con_, he was a man of rough sense and
rustic piety, of a most fearless, and, what the Germans call, a
self-standing nature--for solitude or society came all alike to John.
You would as soon expect a pine-tree to be out of sorts, as his hard,
honest face, and muscular frame. John was never sick, or disturbed in
any way; he performed his own domestic duties with a neatness and
regularity known to few housekeepers, and was a faithful and most
uncompromising guardian of the toll-bar. I well remember how our young
imaginations were impressed with the fact, that no man could pass,
without, as it were, paying tribute to him; and George IV., though he
appeared on the coppers with which we bought apples, cast by no means
so mighty a shadow on our minds as English John. Before this glory
waned, I was removed from his neighbourhood, being sent to cheer the
heart and secure the legacy of a certain uncle who was a writer to the
Signet in Edinburgh, and believed to be in profitable practice and
confirmed bachelorhood. The worthy man has long ago married his
landlady's daughter, and been blessed with a family sufficient to fill
a church-pew. My own adventures--how I grew from garment