242 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



sometimes became a " baather," that is, a bother or bore, to 

 the busy woman. 



She was surprised how he was able, in his poverty, to 

 purchase so many books, some of them costly. This could 

 only have been done, she knew, by the remarkable self- 

 denial he practised in other things, of which she was a 

 daily witness. She speaks of John as being then bright, 

 blithesome, and companionable amongst those he was at 

 home with, and she cherishes the highest respect for his 

 character and disposition, as being, intellectually, intelligent 

 and well informed, and, religiously, " full of the grace of 

 God ; " while his enthusiasm in science was something 

 wonderful. She looked upon him as altogether an un- 

 common, and, in many respects, a superior man, and used 

 at that time to notice the peculiar form of his head, as in 

 correspondence with this fact. 



She found him unusually shy and sensitive, even 

 after long acquaintance, and remarkably so with strangers. 

 He was very kind to her children. They were very fond 

 of him, and one of the first places they went to, when 

 able to toddle about, was the weaving shop. There he 

 used to seat them on the loom beside himself till they fell 

 asleep, lulled by the clatter of the shuttle, when he would 

 carry them home in his arms to their mother and their 

 cradle. 



Another haunt of John's, chiefly in the evenings, was 

 a comfortable cottage next door to the weaver's, belonging 

 to Mrs. Lindsay. Her daughter still survives, about three- 

 score, in the same pleasant, old-world home a comely, 

 placid-looking woman, beautifully patient and resigned 

 under untold pangs, arising from a diseased limb, which 



