My Boyhood and Youth 



my sister Sarah (thirteen years of age), myself 

 (eleven), and brother David (nine), leaving my 

 eldest sister, Margaret, and the three youngest 

 of the family, Daniel, Mary, and Anna, with 

 mother, to join us after a farm had been found 

 in the wilderness and a comfortable house made 

 to receive them. 



In crossing the Atlantic before the days of 

 steamships, or even the American clippers, the 

 voyages made in old-fashioned sailing-vessels 

 were very long. Ours was six weeks and three 

 days. But because we had no lessons to get, 

 that long voyage had not a dull moment for us 

 boys. Father and sister Sarah, with most of 

 the old folk, stayed below in rough weather, 

 groaning in the miseries of seasickness, many 

 of the passengers wishing they had never ven- 

 tured in "the auld rockin'creel," as they called 

 our bluff-bowed, wave-beating ship, and, when 

 the weather was moderately calm, singing songs 

 in the evenings, "The Youthful Sailor Frank 

 and Bold," "Oh, why left I my hame, why did 

 I cross the deep," etc. But no matter how 

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