io6 RISEN BY PERSEVERANCE. 



coincidence, in the case, with the probable time of my father's 

 death, seems at least curious,' 



This superstitious feeling was no doubt nursed by his 

 mother, who entertained a belief in fairies, witches, dreams, 

 ghosts, and presentiments. She was but eighteen when 

 married, while her husband was forty-four. Young Hugh was 

 sent to a dame school, where he learned to read, and during 

 his sixth year spelt through the Shorter Catechism, the Pro- 

 verbs, and the New Testament. He read the Old Testament 

 narrative, especially the story of Joseph, with growing interest. 

 He also perused those classics for youth, Jack the Giant-Killer, 

 Jack and the Bean Stalk, and followed them up with Pope's 

 Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and Bunyan's Pilgrim!s Progress. 

 In process of time he also devoured all the voyages, travels, 

 and romances upon which he could lay his hands. His 

 mother, a young widow with her son of five, and two daughters 

 emerging from infancy, with a fixed income of but twelve 

 pounds, betook herself to her needle, and was otherwise 

 befriended by her two brothers, mentioned in My Schools and 

 Schoolmasters under the names of Uncle James and Uncle 

 Sandy. Thinking themselves called upon to take his father's 

 place in the work of his instruction and discipline, Miller 

 remarks that he owed much more of his real education to 

 them than to any of the teachers whose schools he afterwards 

 attended. 



* My elder uncle, James,' he writes, ' added to a clear head 

 and much native sagacity, a singularly retentive memory, and 

 great thirst of information. He was a harness-maker, and 

 wrought for the farmers of an extensive district of country; 

 and as he never engaged either journeyman or apprentice, but 

 executed all his work with his own hands, his hours of labour, 



