34 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



he received, he determined to remove him, and during 

 Pirie's temporary absence took him along with him, with 

 the intention of providing for him elsewhere. Unfor- 

 tunately, Pirie returned before the two had gone very far 

 from the village, followed them, attacked the father vio- 

 lently, sending him heels over head through a hedge with 

 one fell blow, and then mercilessly beat the unfortunate 

 soldier. He ended by seizing the son and dragging him 

 back to bondage, and dared his father to touch him again, 

 threatening both with all the terrors of the law. 



In 1811, the second year of his apprenticeship, John 

 suffered along with others, through causes over which 

 Pirie had no control. That was the year of "the bad 

 harvest," now become historical. The autumn was very 

 bad on account of the wind and rain ; the corn that was 

 cut stood so long wet in the stocks that it began to sprout 

 again ; and what remained uncut was all shaken and 

 became useless through a fierce gale that blew on a 

 Sunday, long remembered. The meal made from such 

 grain was miserable stuff, being black, sandy, and un- 

 nourishing. As John told in after years, " it was so bad 

 that it crunched between his teeth, and he often looked at 

 it twice before he could muster courage to eat it." Super- 

 stition added to the general misery, for a large comet 

 coursed through the heavens that year, in sight of terrified, 

 starving beholders, who looked upon it as at once an 

 evidence of Divine displeasure, and a herald of the coming 

 judgment day, then speedily expected. 



But all was not dark in John's lot in Pirie's house ; 

 for it is a black day indeed that has not a single gleam of 

 sunshine. One bright ray that illumined the gloom was 



