CHAPTER XIX. 



ROBERT DICK IN ADVERSITY. 



FLOWERS, ferns, and mosses, must for a time disappear, 

 and give place to troubles, disappointments, and sorrows. 

 It is a hard work-a-day world in which we live. Mis- 

 fortunes follow close upon pleasures, however innocent ; 

 and we must set ourselves to bear them as best we may. 

 Dick was never a rich man. The most that he could 

 do was to make both ends meet and keep out of debt. 

 He could even spare a little money to buy books. Be- 

 fore 1860, we find him buying from the Thurso book- 

 seller the History of British Lichens, the Coloured Ferns 

 of Britain, Sowerby's Ferns, and the Handbook of British 



But after that time his business fell off rapidly, and 

 he had to be more sparing in his book-buying. It must 

 be said of Dick that he closely attended to his business. 

 Only once do we find him confessing that he had stolen 

 a morning from his daily work ; and that was when he 

 went on his long journey to Freswick, to search for shells 

 among the boulder clay for his friend Hugh Miller. 



Though he often left the town at midnight, his bread 

 for the following morning had been baked before he left. 

 It was sold during the day by his housekeeper. And 



