hed young man of three and twenty--he will not Marry that
he may take care of his Mother--here is my Dr Margaret, hansome,
Amiable and good and she would not leave her _Ant_ (I mean Aunt)
for any Man on Earth.' Ah My Dear and valuable children, dear is
your affection to my heart, but I will never make so base a use of
it. I entreat my Dr John that you will not give yourself one
moment's uneasiness about me--I will at all events have L86 a year
for life that your Father cannot deprive me of, and tho' I could
not live very splendidly in a Town on this, yet with a neat little
House and Garden in the country, it would afford all the means of
life in fullness to Meggy myself and our servant. You forget, my Dr
how much a woman can do without in domestick affairs to save
Money--a Woman that has any management at all can live with more
comfort on L50 a year than a Man could do on two hundred. There was
a year of my life that I maintained myself and two children on
twenty pound, the bread too was 1/2 the loave that year: we did not
indeed live very sumptuously nor shall I say our strength improved
much but I did not contract one farthing of debt and that to me
supplyed the want of luxuries. Now my Dr John let me never hear a
fear expressed on my account; there is no fear of me; make yourself
happy and all will be well, and for God sake my beloved Boy take
care of your health, take a good drink of porter to dinner and
supper and a little Wine now and then, and tell me particularly
about yr new Lodgings," etc.

He returned home to Edinburgh on a visit and arranged a marriage with
his cousin Margaret, if she would wait for him until he was safely
established; and then he set to work at the responsibilities of creating
a new business. It was a severer task than he had anticipated, for his
father's brain and business, as the above letter hints, had both gone
wrong; he left Edinburgh and settled at Bower's Well, Perth, ended
tragically, and left a load of debt behind him, which the son, sensitive
to the family honour, undertook to pay before laying by a penny for
himself. It took nine years of assiduous labour and economy. He worked
the business entirely by himself. The various departments that most men
entrust to others he filled in person. He managed the correspondence,
he travelled for orders, he arranged the importatio