all others of
peasant rank in the land, were plunged into deep distress, and felt the
pinch severely, through the failure of the potato, the badness of other
crops, and the ransom-price of food. Our father had gone off with work
to Hawick, and would return next evening with money and supplies; but
meantime the meal barrel ran low, and our dear mother, too proud and too
sensitive to let any one know, or to ask aid from any quarter, coaxed us
all to rest, assuring us that she had told God everything, and that He
would send us plenty in the morning. Next day, with the carrier from
Lockerbie came a present from her father, who, knowing nothing of her
circumstances or of this special trial, had been moved of God to send at
that particular nick of time a love-offering to his daughter, such as
they still send to each other in those kindly Scottish shires--a bag of
new potatoes, a stone of the first ground meal or flour, or the earliest
homemade cheese of the season--which largely supplied all our need. My
mother, seeing our surprise at such an answer to her prayers, took us
around her knees, thanked God for His goodness, and said to us:

"O my children, love your Heavenly Father, tell Him in faith and prayer
all your needs, and He will supply your wants so far as it shall be for
your good and His glory."

Perhaps, amidst all their struggles in rearing a family of eleven, this
was the hardest time they ever had, and the only time they ever felt the
actual pinch of hunger; for the little that they had was marvelously
blessed of God, and was not less marvelously utilized by that noble
mother of ours, whose high spirit, side by side with her humble and
gracious piety, made us, under God, what we are to-day.

I saved as much at my trade as enabled me to go for six weeks to
Dumfries Academy; this awoke in me again the hunger for learning, and I
resolved to give up that trade and turn to something that might be made
helpful to the prosecution of my education. An engagement was secured
with the Sappers and Miners, who were mapping and measuring the county
of Dumfries in connection with the Ordnance Survey of Scotland. The
office hours were from 9 A. M. till 4 P. M.; and though my walk from
home was above four miles every morning, and the same by return in the
evening, I found much spare time for private study, both on the way to
and from my work and also after hours. Instead of spending the mid-day
hour with the rest, at football an