ir stockings for wicks, and
dip them into the fat of the salt meat which was left. We were in great
anxiety, for it was reported that some of the ships had foundered; we
were, however, relieved by the arrival of the "Repulse" in Leith roads
for repair.

Our house on one occasion being full, I was sent to sleep in a room
quite detached from the rest and with a different staircase. There was
a closet in this room in which my father kept his fowling pieces,
fishing tackle, and golf clubs, and a long garret overhead was filled
with presses and stores of all kinds, among other things a number of
large cheeses were on a board slung by ropes to the rafters. One night I
had put out my candle and was fast asleep, when I was awakened by a
violent crash, and then a rolling noise over my head. Now the room was
said to be haunted, so that the servants would not sleep in it. I was
desperate, for there was no bell. I groped my way to the closet--lucifer
matches were unknown in those days--I seized one of the golf clubs,
which are shod with iron, and thundered on the bedroom door till I
brought my father, followed by the whole household, to my aid. It was
found that the rats had gnawed through the ropes by which the cheeses
were suspended, so that the crash and rolling were accounted for, and I
was scolded for making such an uproar.

Children suffer much misery by being left alone in the dark. When I was
very young I was sent to bed at eight or nine o'clock, and the maid who
slept in the room went away as soon as I was in bed, leaving me alone in
the dark till she came to bed herself. All that time I was in an agony
of fear of something indefinite, I could not tell what. The joy, the
relief, when the maid came back, were such that I instantly fell asleep.
Now that I am a widow and old, although I always have a night-lamp, such
is the power of early impressions that I rejoice when daylight comes.

* * * * *

At Burntisland the sacrament was administered in summer because people
came in crowds from the neighbouring parishes to attend the preachings.
The service was long and fatiguing. A number of clergymen came to
assist, and as the minister's manse could not accommodate them all, we
entertained three of them, one of whom was always the Rev. Dr. Campbell,
father of Lord Campbell.

Thursday was a day of preparation. The morning service began by a psalm
sung by the congregation, then a prayer was said by the min