126 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



The winter of 1823 was spent, as usual, in Cromarty. 

 William Ross was in Edinburgh, and Miller had no 

 friend of his own age with whom he cared much to 

 associate. He seems to have been in a trivial mood and to 

 have made business of amusement. ' There was,' he 

 says, ' a little mischievous boy of about ten years of age 

 whom I chose as a companion for lack of a better. He 

 was spirited and sensible for his years, and deemed me a 

 very superior kind of playfellow. I taught him how to 

 climb, and leap, and wrestle, how to build bridges and 

 rig ships, and how to make baskets and rush caps. I 

 told him stories, and lent him books, and showed him 

 how to act plays, and lighted fires with him in the caves 

 of the hill of Cromarty, and, in short went on in such 

 a manner that my acquaintance began to shake their own 

 heads and to question the soundness of mine. My 

 Uncle James, who used sturdily to assert, in the face of 

 all opposing evidence, that my powers of mind averaged 

 rather above than below the common standard, seriously 

 told me about this time that if I would not act more in 

 the manner of other people, he would defend me no 

 longer/ 



