a short time at low
tides--and made safety on the North Sea, where before there had been
death and danger, from the cruel cliffs that guard that iron coast.

What child has not thrilled and shivered over the ballad of 'Ralph the
Rover,' who, hoping doubtless that the wrecked ships might fall into his
own piratical hands, cut the bell which the good monks of Aberbrothock
had placed on the fatal rock, and who, by merited justice, was for lack
of the bell himself, on his return voyage, lost on that very spot! What
boy has not loved the story of one of the greatest engineering feats
that patience and skill has ever accomplished!

If other young folk so loved it what a depth of interest must not that
noble story have had for the grandson of the hero, whose childish soul
was full of chivalry and romance, and whose boyish eyes saw visions of
the future and pictures of the past as no ordinary child could see them,
for his was the gift of genius, and even the commonplace things of life
were glorified to him.

Alan Stevenson, who was the father of Robert, died of fever when in the
island of St Christopher on a visit to his brother, who managed the
foreign business of the Glasgow West India house with which they were
connected. The brother unfortunately dying of the same fever, business
matters were somewhat complicated, and Alan's widow and little boy had
to endure straitened circumstances. The mother strained every nerve to
have her boy, whom she intended for the ministry, well educated, and the
lad profited by her self-denial. Her second marriage, however, very
fortunately changed her plans for Robert, for her second husband, Mr
Smith, had a mechanical bent which led him to make many researches on
the subject of lighting and lighthouses, and finding that his stepson
shared his tastes, he encouraged him in his engineering and mechanical
studies.

The satisfactory results of Mr Smith's researches caused the first Board
of Northern Lights to make him their engineer, and he designed Kinnaird
Head, the first light they exhibited, and illuminated it in 1787. He was
ultimately succeeded as engineer to the Board by his stepson, of Bell
Rock fame, and his descendant, Mr David Alan Stevenson, who now holds
the post, is the sixth in the family who has done so. Young Stevenson
not only became his stepfather's partner but married his eldest
daughter, and with her founded a home that was evidently a happy one,
for the great engineer was