12 PETER HENDERSON. 



In these battles the " boy was father to the man," for 

 Peter Henderson always commanded one side. A story 

 is told of him which forcibly illustrates his fertility in 

 resource, even in his very early days. He could not 

 have been over seven years old when an old gun a foot 

 or two taller than himself came into his possession. He 

 had powder, but no bullets, and of what use was a gun 

 to -a boy without bullets ? At last he remembered that 

 in the rear of Crichtoun House, (the residence of his 

 father's employer) the lower windows were protec- 

 ted by iron bars, sunk in stone and soldered with lead. 

 H e got all the lead there he needed for his bullets. A day 

 or two later the desecration was discovered and a hue and 

 cry was raised, but the small offender was never detec- 

 ted. Fifty-five years afterwards in visiting the scenes 

 of his boyhood, he was interested enough to show Mrs. 

 Henderson the spot where he had obtained the lead for 

 his bullets, and to his astonishment the holes had never 

 been filled up and the traces of his jack-knife were still 

 plainly visible. 



The desire common to so raany ambitious country- 

 bred boys to find their way to large cities, took possession 

 of him at the age of fifteen, when his school-days ended. 

 The first chance came in the offer of a position in a liquor 

 store in Edinburgh. The scenes he there saw were suffi- 

 cient in a few months to make him give up his position and 

 thus was laid the foundation of the temperance prin- 

 ciples that he advocated and maintained all his life. 

 Peter Henderson was perhaps as proud of this incident as 

 of any experience in his career ; because he returned to 

 his native village as uncontaminated as when he left it. 



At the age of sixteen the dawn of his renown began 

 to glimmer, when he was indentured as an appren- 

 tice in the gardens of Melville Castle, situated near Dal- 

 keith, which under the direction of the then head- 

 gardener, George Sterling, was considered the best 

 training school in all Scotland. Mr. Sterling _ was a 

 character, and his famous pupil in after years never 

 wearied of quoting his quaint remarks. He was, too, a 



