He was a great fisherman, too, and many a salmon I have seen him kill between the town and Rutherglen in the autumn afternoons.

He treated me like a son, and by his aid I completed my education by much reading of books and a frequent attendance at college lectures.

Such leisure as I had I spent by the river-side talking with the ship captains and getting news of far lands.

In this way I learned something of the handling of a ship, and especially how to sail a sloop alone in rough weather, I have ventured, myself the only crew, far down the river to the beginning of the sealocks, and more than once escaped drowning by a miracle.

Of a Saturday I would sometimes ride out to Auchencairn to see my mother and assist with my advice the work of Robin Gilfillan.