just got
as far as the terrible doings of Giant Despair and the horrors of
Doubting Castle, when all at once, without warning, there came a
terrible knock at our front door. I really thought the giant was
upon us. It was some wayfaring man asking the way or something, but
the terror I felt has made an indelible impression on me.

'When of the approved age I went to school, wondering whether I
should ever be able to learn and do as others did. I was very
nervous and much afraid, and wrought so hard and was so ably
superintended by my mother that I made rapid progress, and was put
from one class to another with delightful rapidity. I was
dreadfully jealous of any one who was a good scholar like myself,
and to have any one above me in class annoyed me to such a degree
that I could not play cheerfully with him.

'The date of my going to college was, I think, the November of the
year 1862, so that my first session at Glasgow University was
1862-63. The classes I took were junior Latin and junior Greek. In
Latin I got about the twelfth prize, and in Greek I think the
third. The summer I spent partly in study, partly in helping my
father in his trade of a wright and joiner.

'During 1863 and 1864 I lived in Glasgow, and worked very hard,
taking the first prize in middle Greek and a prize in senior Latin,
as well as a prize for private work in Greek, and another for the
same kind of work in Latin. This last I was specially proud of, as
in it I beat the two best fellows in the Latin class. Next session
(1864-65) I took a prize in senior Greek. I got nothing in the
logic, but in moral philosophy in 1865 I was one of those who took
an active part in the rebellion against Dr. Fleming, who, though he
was entitled to the full retiring pension, preferred to remain on
as professor, taking the fees and appointing a student to do the
work. We made a stand against this, and were able to bring him out
to his work; but it was too much for him, and he died in harness,
as he had wished.

'In English literature I made no appearance in the pieces noted by
the students, but came out second in the competitive examination,
which of course astonished a good deal some of the noisy men who
had answered so much in the class and yet knew so little. I was
really proud