in succession, and at the evening
worship we read two verses each all round. This proved rather a trying
ordeal for some of the apprentices, one or more of whom we usually had
boarding with us, or to a new servant-girl, as their education in many
cases had not been of too liberal a description. But they soon got more
proficient, and if it led them to nothing higher, it was a good
educational help. These devotional exercises were not common in the
district in the mornings, and were apt to be broken in upon by callers
at the wright's shop; but that was never entertained as an excuse for
curtailing them. I suppose people in the district got to know of the
custom, and avoided making their calls at a time when they would have to
wait some little while for attention. Our parents, however, never
allowed this practice or their religious inclinations to obtrude on
their neighbours; all was done most unassumingly and humbly, as a matter
of everyday course.

'Our maternal grandfather, John Pettigrew by name, was a farmer and
meal-miller on the estate of Cathkin, and was considered a man of
sterling worth and integrity. Having had occasion to send his minister,
the parson of Carmunnock parish, some bags of oatmeal from his mill, the
minister suspected from some cause or other that he had got short weight
or measure. The worthy miller was rather nettled at being thus impeached
by his spiritual overseer, and that same night proceeded to the manse
with the necessary articles required for determining the accuracy of the
minister's suspicions. When this was done, it was found there remained
something to the good, instead of a deficiency; this the miller swung
over his shoulder in a bag and took back with him to the mill, as a
lesson to the crestfallen divine to be more careful in future about
challenging the integrity of his humble parishioner's transactions.

'While James was quite a child the family removed to Glasgow, where our
father entered into partnership with his brother Alexander as timber
merchants. During this stay in Glasgow mother's health proved very
unsatisfactory, and latterly both she and father having been prostrated
and brought to death's door by a malignant fever, it was decided to
relinquish the partnership and return to their former place in the
country. James was five years old at that time. When he was between
seven and eight he was sent with his older brothers to the new
Subscription School in Bushyhill, Cambus