tiful Clyde, above Glasgow; and his sons, having had the best
education the Hebrides afforded, were gladly received as clerks by
the proprietors, Monteith and Co. He himself, highly esteemed for his
unflinching honesty, was employed in the conveyance of large sums of
money from Glasgow to the works, and in old age was, according to the
custom of that company, pensioned off, so as to spend his declining
years in ease and comfort.

Our uncles all entered his majesty's service during the last French
war, either as soldiers or sailors; but my father remained at home, and,
though too conscientious ever to become rich as a small tea-dealer, by
his kindliness of manner and winning ways he made the heart-strings
of his children twine around him as firmly as if he had possessed, and
could have bestowed upon them, every worldly advantage. He reared
his children in connection with the Kirk of Scotland--a religious
establishment which has been an incalculable blessing to that
country--but he afterward left it, and during the last twenty years of
his life held the office of deacon of an independent church in Hamilton,
and deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting me, from
my infancy, with a continuously consistent pious example, such as that
ideal of which is so beautifully and truthfully portrayed in Burns's
"Cottar's Saturday Night". He died in February, 1856, in peaceful hope
of that mercy which we all expect through the death of our Lord and
Savior. I was at the time on my way below Zumbo, expecting no greater
pleasure in this country than sitting by our cottage fire and telling
him my travels. I revere his memory.

The earliest recollection of my mother recalls a picture so often seen
among the Scottish poor--that of the anxious housewife striving to
make both ends meet. At the age of ten I was put into the factory as a
"piecer", to aid by my earnings in lessening her anxiety. With a part of
my first week's wages I purchased Ruddiman's "Rudiments of Latin",
and pursued the study of that language for many years afterward, with
unabated ardor, at an evening school, which met between the hours of
eight and ten. The dictionary part of my labors was followed up till
twelve o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere by jumping up
and snatching the books out of my hands. I had to be back in the
factory by six in the morning, and continue my work, with intervals for
breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at nigh