time under a Mr. M'Intyre, "a
famous linguist," were all she could afford in the way of education to
the would-be minister. He learned no Greek; in one place he mentions
that the Orations of Cicero were his highest book in Latin; in another
that he had "delighted" in Virgil and Horace; but his delight could
never have been scholarly. This appears to have been the whole of his
training previous to an event which changed his own destiny and moulded
that of his descendants--the second marriage of his mother.

There was a Merchant-Burgess of Edinburgh of the name of Thomas Smith.
The Smith pedigree has been traced a little more particularly than the
Stevensons', with a similar dearth of illustrious names. One character
seems to have appeared, indeed, for a moment at the wings of history: a
skipper of Dundee who smuggled over some Jacobite big-wig at the time of
the 'Fifteen, and was afterwards drowned in Dundee harbour while going
on board his ship. With this exception, the generations of the Smiths
present no conceivable interest even to a descendant; and Thomas, of
Edinburgh, was the first to issue from respectable obscurity. His
father, a skipper out of Broughty Ferry, was drowned at sea while Thomas
was still young. He seems to have owned a ship or two--whalers, I
suppose, or coasters--and to have been a member of the Dundee Trinity
House, whatever that implies. On his death the widow remained in
Broughty, and the son came to push his future in Edinburgh. There is a
story told of him in the family which I repeat here because I shall
have to tell later on a similar, but more perfectly authenticated,
experience of his stepson, Robert Stevenson. Word reached Thomas that
his mother was unwell, and he prepared to leave for Broughty on the
morrow. It was between two and three in the morning, and the early
northern daylight was already clear, when he awoke and beheld the
curtains at the bed-foot drawn aside and his mother appear in the
interval, smile upon him for a moment, and then vanish. The sequel is
stereotype: he took the time by his watch, and arrived at Broughty to
learn it was the very moment of her death. The incident is at least
curious in having happened to such a person--as the tale is being told
of him. In all else, he appears as a man, ardent, passionate, practical,
designed for affairs and prospering in them far beyond the average. He
founded a solid business in lamps and oils, and was the sole proprietor
of a