ENGAGES WITH DAVID WRIGHT. 59 



The last number of the Village Observer contains a 

 few verses on criticism, headed ' extempore,' which seem 

 to be by Miller. The two opening lines are not without 

 spirit : 



1 Critics, like lions, make riot carrion game ; 

 The work has merit, or they'll ne'er' condemn.' 



Perhaps the most significant trait which the number 

 presents of Hugh is this from a ' Journal of the Week : ' 

 ' Wrote a moral essay upon the advantages of indus- 

 try, but tore it in pieces on considering that its author 

 was one of the most indolent personages on earth, did 

 nothing, but still determined on reform.' 



Farewell, then, to the busy idleness of verse-making 

 and magazine editing. In the last days of February, 

 Miller still has leisure to put together the number for 

 March, but no other number follows. He binds himself, 

 verbally but by no legal instrument, apprentice for three 

 years to ' old David Wright,' stone-mason, brother-in-law 

 of his mother. Old David was something of a character. 

 The man who, standing on the thwarts of his boat, which 

 had just sunk, the sea water being at the moment up to his 

 throat, could so accurately appreciate the points of his 

 situation, and retain so clear a perception of the thing to 

 be done, as to say, on seeing his snuff-box floating off, 

 ' Od, Andro man, just rax out your han' and tak' in my 

 snuff-box,' must have had an enviable firmness of nerve 

 and quietness of self-possession. 



Miller's uncles, who had taken the right measure of 

 his capacity, and who had loved and watched over him 

 as a son, have done their utmost to oppose this decision. 

 Their sure instinct tells them that the place of this recruit 

 is not in the ranks ; they have earnestly wished to see 

 him enrolled among the brain -workers of the community ; 

 and like all Scottish peasants of the old historic type, they 



