Gallant Resciie. 321 



was now a river several yards broad, and rising 

 rapidly. There was no time to be lost. 



Pulling off his boots and stockings, our naturalist 

 gathered up his traps and, hurrying through the 

 stream, deposited them safely on the other side. He 

 then returned for his better half. He had some diffi- 

 culty in getting her on to his shoulders so that her 

 feet would be out of the water, which was now higher 

 than his knees. There was no time to tarry. Every 

 moment was increasing the danger. He balanced his 

 precious burden the best way he could, and landed it 

 in safety on the other side. Yet such is gratitude 

 that to this day he has to put up with sarcastic com- 

 pliments on the gallantry which inspired him to rescue 

 first his traps and then his wife. 



During the next three or four years, though there 

 was much work done, and many pleasant and cheerful 

 visits from friends were enjoyed, yet on the whole the 

 wonted sunshine of the family was much overcast, 

 and its radiance chequered with the shade of many 

 sorrows. Mr. Robertson himself suffered from illness. 

 His eldest son's wife died in 1880. In 1881, Mrs. 

 Robertson had more than one extremely severe ill- 

 ness. In 1882, the younger son also lost his wife. 

 She left him with three very young children. 



For the lover of coincidences, it may be noted that 

 just as the father lost his first wife through her im- 

 prudently visiting her friends in the Isle of Man, so 

 did the son lose his some forty years later through 

 her visit to the same island for the same purpose, 

 though in the latter case the harm was done, not by 

 an infectious malady, but by the accident of a very 



Y 



