22 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
better prospects of improving his position, when the seven years 
required should have expired, than could be looked for if he con- 
tinued to work as a farm labourer during that period. Before 
coming to a final decision on the subject, he went to Glasgow and 
obtained an interview with Dr. Robert Hunter, Professor of 
Anatomy in the Andersonian University. Dr. Hunter en- 
couraged him to persevere with his studies, and assured him that 
students with a more defective utterance had been able to succeed 
well in their profession. He accordingly resolved to carry his bold 
scheme into execution. 
From combined motives of economy and comradeship, it was 
arranged that he and his two student friends should occupy the 
same rooms. They hired an attic with two apartments, close to 
the Cross Steeple, and with two windows overlooking the Tron- 
gate. Each student took his turn at the cooking and other house- 
hold duties ; water was conveniently obtained on the stairhead ; 
and a little girl, who lived on the same landing, acted as their 
messenger in any necessary errands. By an ingenious device of 
young Robertson’s, the door was fitted with a latch which could 
only be opened by those initiated into the secret of its working ; 
and thus the three students, who returned at different hours, were 
saved the trouble and expense of providing themselves with 
separate keys. These preliminaries having been satisfactorily 
arranged, David attended the lectures of Dr. Hunter, Professor 
of Anatomy, by whose advice his new career had been adopted. 
To provide themselves with the necessaries of life, pay their 
class-fees, and supply the books and other requisites for their 
studies, Robert Miller and David Robertson resolved to com- 
mence an evening school for writing and arithmetic. They 
obtained a single apartment in a close in High Street a short 
distance above the Cross. Having hired some old furniture, they 
removed their belongings from the attics, and took up their abode 
in the schoolroom. In their new quarters, just as in the old, the 
cooking and domestic work were shared by them in turn. As 
Robert Miller was a beautiful writer, he prepared a number of 
large cards announcing the opening of the school. These were 
exhibited in some of the neighbouring shop windows; and as the 
fine penmanship attracted considerable notice, the young teachers 
were soon able to get together a fairly large class. Here their 
