At Newlandmoor. 55 



no wonder that she and David parted good friends. 

 He left the ill-conditioned lodger to improve under 

 her influence. 



At the age of eighteen David hired himself out as 

 a farm-servant with a Mr. McAsland, at a place 

 called Newlandmoor, in the neighbourhood of East 

 Kilbride. Mr. McAsland was not himself a farmer, 

 but he retained as managers two brothers, from whom 

 he had bought the farm. They were both strong 

 young men, the one six feet and the other six feet 

 two inches in height. They had been left the farm 

 by their father, and had run through their means, 

 not by intemperance or speculation, but by careless 

 inactivity, and were not particularly well qualified to 

 manage what they had undertaken. It was under 

 their direction that David had to work. Mr. 

 McAsland's daughter, a clever, sensible young lady, 

 superintended the management of the house ; and, 

 although she had not been accustomed to such work, 

 was considered to do it exceedingly well. 



It was part of young Robertson's employment to 

 take the milk to Glasgow. The horse in the first 

 instance employed for this purpose was very slow, 

 and took a long time to get there, and as long to get 

 back for home work. In course of time the laird, as 

 the proprietor was called, purchased a fine mare, 

 warranted to be an excellent walker, as in fact she 

 turned out to be. But the mare was so exceedingly 

 difficult to work with, that those who tried the task 

 would have none of it, and there seemed nothing for 

 it but to part with her. Yet she was so good a 

 walker, having no match upon the road, that David 



