that time, necessarily exclude him from such society as the town of
Barstow offered. But it made him shy of responding to the advances of
some of the people who lived in the big white houses among the trees
along the street, and who went to the same church in which, after a few
weeks of wandering, here and there, John settled down.

The only people whom he came to know very well during his first year,
were the Strongs at the farm, and the Haddens. Mr Hadden was friendly
with him from the first, because he was a fellow-countryman, and because
he was a friend of William Bain's. Afterward, they were more than
friendly, for better reasons. Mr Hadden had no cause to feel surprise
in finding in a skilled workman from his native land, a man of wide
reading and intelligence. He had found many such among his countrymen
who had come to seek a home in his own adopted country. But John Beaton
was different from most of those with whom he had come in contact, in
that it was not necessary in his case, that allowance should be made for
unconscious roughness of manner or speech, or for ignorance of certain
ways and usages of society, which are trifles in themselves, but of
which it is desirable that one should be aware.

But at this time John did not care much for society of any kind. He
never had cared much for it. In Nethermuir he had "kept himself to
himself," as far as most of the townsfolk were concerned, and it must be
owned, that beyond his own small circle of friends in the manse, and in
one or two other houses, he had not been a very popular person. He had
no time to give to anything of that sort, he had always said, but he
might have found the time, if he had had the inclination. He had not
much leisure in Barstow. Still, in the course of the first two years,
he came to know a good many people in the way of business; and in
connection with the work undertaken by the church to which he belonged,
he also made friends whom he valued, but his first friends were his best
friends.

All that need be told of the first three years of his residence in
Barstow, may be gathered from a letter which he wrote to his mother
about that time.

"You ought to be a happy woman, mother, for you have gotten the desire
of your heart. Do you not mind once saying to me, that you desired for
me nothing better in this life, than that I should do as my father had
done, and make my own way in the world? Well, that is just what I am
doing.