SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 23 



in the village post office, the appointment was, on 

 the recommendation of the Hon. J. E. Elliot, at 

 that time member for the county, conferred upon 

 John, in the belief that his advancing years would 

 find an easier living than in toiling at his old trade. 

 The result, however, proved different from what was 

 expected. The rigid exactitude of rule, the per- 

 plexing net work of forms and business routine, were 

 more than one accustomed to the simple machinery 

 of making shoes could overtake, and when the life 

 was nearly vexed out of him, in January 1856 John 

 threw up the appointment in disgust. To the pre- 

 sent writer and a friend, who called shortly after, he 

 said he felt himself, when postmaster, like a caged 

 squirrel running over its never-ending wheel, but 

 that when he was free he felt himself just like the 

 squirrel on the top of a tree, " ready to jump 

 wherever he liked/' 



The celebration of the Burns' centenary, in 1859, 

 stimulated John to bring out a lecture on the genius 

 and character of the national bard. He had a fancy 

 that he could treat the subject in a way of his own 

 believing that many traits and perplexing points in 

 Burns' history had been misunderstood, and that 

 purely literary men had not been grounded as he 

 had been in the experience of a social condition, 



