322 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



tempestuous voyage operating upon a frame at the 

 time not in vigorous health. Yet another coincidence 

 was that, just as Mr. Robertson's mother had been 

 left a widow with a family of three little children, two 

 boys and a girl, so was his son left a widower with 

 a family almost exactly similar, though happily far 

 better provided for. 



It was not an unnatural thing that the grandparents 

 should adopt the three motherless bairns, who ought, 

 if education and example count for anything, to grow 

 up into a group of accomplished naturalists. One 

 difficulty at the outset was that the youngest, a boy 

 between two and three years old, as if conscious of an 

 irreparable loss, was often disposed to reject all the 

 attentions of would-be nurses. On such occasions, the 

 difficulty, it was found, could only be solved by his 

 being taken into his grandfather's arms, where he at 

 once lay placid and contented, with a sympathy be- 

 tween the two that continues unbroken. 



