HIS EDINBURGH HOUSEHOLD. 219 



culty of solving the problem was increased by the Edin- 

 burgh custom of requiring the occupant of a house to 

 supply grates and 'fittings ' of all kinds. Nevertheless, 

 with activity in attending sales of furniture, contentment 

 with small beginnings, and patient waiting between 

 purchases, Mrs Miller, to whom, in his entire absorp- 

 tion in the work of the paper, her husband left the matter, 

 contrived to make the house first habitable and then 

 comfortable. After a little time she began to assist in 

 the editorial department, first with paste and scissors, 

 then with pen, as contributor of reviews of books, earning 

 thereby some 20 per annum, which went to the furnish- 

 ing. Once when Miller returned from breakfasting with 

 Chalmers, he told his wife that the great man had com- 

 plimented him on one of the Witness critiques, and that 

 he had never felt so proud in his life as in saying that 

 it was by his wife. The business of furnishing, though 

 difficult, was not without its alleviations. 



Capable of existing with perfect convenience in a 

 cave, one stone serving for table, another for seat, and a 

 plate, knife, and fork the whole 'plenishing/ Hugh 

 suffered nothing from the anxiety to put things on a 

 respectable footing which oppressed Mrs Miller. The 

 spring leaves opening round him, the blue sky above, the 

 family of genius with their piteous little drudge at safe 

 distance, his wife beside him and his little daughter on 

 his knee, he could feel once more that he had a home. 



A daily visitor from the first was the sub-editor, Mr 

 James Mackenzie, then a student of theology, subse- 

 quently minister of Dunfermline. Young, ardent, en- 

 thusiastic beyond measure in the cause of spiritual 

 independence, proud of Miller as the popular champion, 

 affectionate in disposition and caressing in manner, 

 sincere, natural, impulsive as a child, he completely won 



