It was a sore business for my mother, who had the task of warding off prying eyes from our ragged household and keeping the fugitive in life.

She was a Tweedside woman, as strong and staunch as an oak, and with a heart in her like Robert Bruce.

And she was cheerful, too, in the worst days, and would go about the place with a bright eye and an old song on her lips.

But the thing was beyond a woman's bearing; so I had perforce to forsake my colleging and take a hand with our family vexations.

The life made me hard and watchful, trusting no man, and brusque and stiff towards the world.