he boat, and were waiting for my daughter, who had
been sent by us on a message to a shop. She did not return in time for
the boat in which we were conveyed to the Aurora; but we were told by
the sailors that she would probably arrive in the next. One boat,
however, arrived, but our dear Nelly was not in it; another came, but
with it no daughter. Meantime the ship was under sail, and the captain
said he would not lose the favourable breeze for all the girls in
Scotland. My dear wife was inconsolable, and I petitioned hard to be let
out, even on one of the Western Isles; but the weather was exceeding
stormy, and we kept as far as possible from land. 'God,' said I to my
grieving partner, 'will protect Nelly; for she is good and virtuous. God
can be father and mother, and more than all that, to those who fear and
obey him.' We landed at Quebec, and maintained ourselves for some
time--I acting as a kind of shore-porter, and my wife assisting in
assorting furs in a great warehouse. But our means were but small; so we
bethought us of removing more inland. So we arrived ultimately at
Montreal, where I had the good fortune to meet with a distant relative
in pretty good circumstances. He had long been engaged in a mercantile
house, and had now obtained a considerable and a profitable share in it.
He immediately found employment for me as a warehouse servant, whilst my
wife washed and dressed for himself and a few friends. Year after year
passed by, and many a letter did we write to Edderachills and Dornoch;
but we received no answer. At last it pleased God to remove my dear
Helen by death; and my friend having resolved to remove to Kirkcaldy,
his native place, I took shipping with him in the ship St John, and we
arrived off the Land's End in safety. But it came on to blow dreadfully
from the north and the east, as we rounded the island; and one dark
night in the month of November we struck upon a rock in the
neighbourhood of Ely. The ship fired signals of distress, and a boat
came out, which saved the passengers and crew; but the ship and cargo
were lost. What was my surprise, upon arriving at the inn, to find, in
the person of one of the boatmen, the shipwrecked stranger, Sam Rogers,
who had lodged so long with us at Edderachills. He insisted upon my
immediately repairing to his cabin, as he termed it, on the shore, with
the view of introducing me to his wife and a large family of children.

"'Have you ever heard,' continued he,