LEAVES TULLIBODY. 21 



He made no acquaintances. The Aikmans say 

 " that he was very kind to his master's children that 

 he was constantly "bringing them flowers from the fields, 

 or nuts from the glens, or anything curious or interesting 

 which he had picked up in the course of his journeys." 

 He occupied a little of his time in bird-stuffing. He 

 stuffed a hare, which he called " a tinkler's lion." It 

 need scarcely be said that the children were very fond 

 of their father's 'prentice. 



At length his time was out. He was only seventeen. 

 But he had to leave Tullibody, and try to find work as 

 a journeyman. He bundled up his clothes and set out 

 for Alloa, where he caught the boat for Leith. He never 

 saw Tullibody again, though he long remembered it. 

 His father and mother were buried in the churchyard 

 there ; and he could not help having a longing affection 

 for the place. But he could never spare money enough 

 to revisit the place of his birth. 



Long after, when writing to his brother-in-law, he 

 said, "And ye have been up to Alloa. Well, I do 

 believe that is a bonnie country, altho' I fancy it is not 

 in any sense the poor man's country. Nothing but men 

 of money there; though fient a hair did I care for 

 their grandeur while I lived there. The hills and woods, 

 and freedom to run upon them and through them, was 

 all I cared about. 



" ' What though, like commoners of air, 

 We wander out we know not where, 



But either house or hall ? 

 Yet Nature's charms, the hills and woods, 

 The sweeping vales, and foaming floods, 

 Are free alike to all.' 



