For days I had been dreaming of foreign parts and an Odyssey of strange fortunes, and here on a Glasgow stairhead I had found Ulysses himself.
"Is it not the pity," he cried, "that such talents as yours should rust in a dark room in the Candleriggs?
Believe me, Mr.Garvald, I have seen some pretty shots, but I have never seen your better." Then I told him that I was sailing within a month for Virginia, and he suddenly grew solemn.
"It looks like Providence," he said, "that we two should come together.
I, too, will soon be back in the Western Seas, and belike we'll meet.
I'm something of a rover, and I never bide long in the same place, but I whiles pay a visit to James Town, and they ken me well on the Eastern Shore and the Accomac beaches." He fell to giving me such advice as a traveller gives to a novice.

It was strange hearing for an honest merchant, for much of it was concerned with divers ways of outwitting the law.

By and by he was determined to convoy me to my lodgings, for he pointed out that I was unarmed; and I think, too, he had still hopes of another meeting with Long Colin, his cousin.
"I leave Glasgow the morrow's morn," he said, "and it's no likely we'll meet again in Scotland.

Out in Virginia, no doubt, you'll soon be a great man, and sit in Council, and hob-nob with the Governor.

But a midge can help an elephant, and I would gladly help you, for you had the goodwill to help me.