3obn Bouncer 365 



a brewery. The failure of the brewery sent the rash 

 speculator back to his gardening again. 



The father of John Younger was by trade a shoe- 

 maker, and during the time he was journeyman at 

 Oxenham " kept the pass against all Border competitors 

 in putting the stone, wrestling, and jumping " feats of 

 athletic prowess which his son affected to despise, though 

 he inherited much of his father's great stature and 

 strength, and was himself no mean athlete. But this 

 was one of many irritating traits in John's character 

 which I shall touch upon presently. 



John was the youngest of a family of six, and as he 

 appeared to have more brains than the rest his parents 

 cherished the fond hope that they might live to see him 

 "wag his pow in a poopit" the highest ambition of 

 the Scottish peasant and artisan. 



But the Fates were against poor John. " Mason's 

 spelling-book," he writes, " with eight rules for syllabic 

 pronunciation, gave the high finish to my grand course 

 of education? At the age of nine res angusta domi 

 compelled the lad to put on a small leathern apron 

 and commence, under his father's tuition, the craft of 

 shoemaking, " hoping that in time improved circum- 

 stances might enable them to give him more schooling 

 and make a clergyman of him." 



But these " improved circumstances " never came, and 

 it was decreed that John Younger should begin and end 

 his days as a shoemaker. Fortunately, however, Nature 

 had endowed him with a love of sport which enabled 

 him to find solace for his lowly lot and gild his dull 

 life with many golden hours. 



