Intbod. EAKLY LABOUES AND INSTRUCTION. 3 



custom of that company, pensioned off, so as to spend his de- 

 clining years in ease and comfort. 



Our uncles all entered His Majesty's service during the last 

 French war, either as soldiers or sailors ; but my father remained 

 at home, and, though too conscientious ever to become rich as a 

 small tea-dealer, by Ins kindliness of manner and winning ways 

 he made the heartstrings of his children twine around him as 

 firmly as if he had possessed, and could have bestowed upon 

 them, every worldly advantage. He reared his children in con- 

 nection with the Kirk of Scotland — a religious establishment 

 which has been an incalculable blessing to that country — but he 

 afterwards left it, and during the last twenty years of his life 

 held the office of deacon of an independent church in Hamilton, 

 and deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting 

 me from infancy with a continuously consistent pious example, 

 such as that the ideal of which is so beautifully and truthfully 

 portrayed in Burns' 'Cottar's Saturday Night.' He died in 

 February, 1856, in peaceful hope of that mercy which we all 

 expect through the death of our Lord and Saviour: I was at 

 the time on my way below Zumbo, expecting no greater pleasure 

 in this country than sitting by our cottage fire and telling lnm 

 my travels. I revere his memory. 



The earliest recollection of my mother recalls a picture so often 

 seen among the Scottish poor — that of the anxious housewife 

 striving to make both ends meet. At the age of ten I was put 

 into the factory as a " piecer," to aid by my earnings in lessening 

 her anxiety. With a part of my first week's wages I purchased 

 Ruddiman's ' Eudiments of Latin,' and pursued the study of that 

 language for many years afterwards, with unabated ardour, at an 

 evening school, which met between the hours of eight and ten. 

 The dictionary part of my labours was followed up till twelve 

 o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere by jumping up 

 and snatching the books out of my hands. I had to be back 

 in the factory by six in the morning, and continue my work, with 

 intervals for breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at night. I 

 read in this way many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil 

 and Horace better at sixteen than I do now. Our schoolmaster 

 — happily still alive — was supported in part by the company ; 

 he was attentive and kind, and so moderate in his charges that 



b 2 



