308 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



criticised. That my father and John did not know more 

 about all those topics of discussion than did all remaining 

 humanity, is a sceptical after-thought on my part, not 

 justified by my opinion then or any doubt or hesitation 

 on theirs. Could I give you a picture of the two worthies 

 when thus engaged, you might place it side by side with 

 Tarn o' Shanter and Souter Johnny. 



"Of controversy, there was little or none. When it 

 happened to be my father's turn to speak and when the 

 theme was exceptionally important, he would for a minute 

 or two give over work, and let off such an oration as would 

 have done honour to any Yankee stump platform. John, 

 sitting up close to him and occasionally wiping the gather- 

 ing perspiration from his forehead, the result of excitement 

 roused by the topics in hand, would then make a similar 

 performance. For myself, I was practically a nonentity. 

 They would no more have thought of listening to me, even 

 if I wished to interfere, which I did not and could not, than 

 of listening to a two-year-old child. Yet it would have 

 been difficult to say which of the three enjoyed the affair 

 most. That they did so most heartily was veiy evident. 

 Their faces, now beaming with intelligence as they clearly 

 unravelled some knotty point, then bursting with derisive 

 laughter as they exposed some silly, stupid Tory, and anon 

 stern as any black-capped judge when they foreboded 

 some dire calamity about to burst on the country, clearly 

 showed that they enjoyed a mental treat of the most 

 varied description. My father was an extensive reader, and 

 so was John. The weekly Aberdeen Free Press was their 

 newspaper oracle, and the editor, Mr. McCombie, only a 

 lesser deity to them. 



