All this stood on the debit side of my account.

On the credit side I set down that I had unshaken good health and an uncommon power of endurance, especially in the legs.

There was no runner in the Upper Ward of Lanark who was my match, and I had travelled the hills so constantly in all weathers that I had acquired a gipsy lore in the matter of beasts and birds and wild things, I had long, clear, unerring eyesight, which had often stood me in good stead in the time of my father's troubles.

Of moral qualities, Heaven forgive me, I fear I thought less; but I believed, though I had been little proved, that I was as courageous as the common run of men.
All this looks babyish in the writing, but there was a method in this self-examination.

I believed that I was fated to engage in strange ventures, and I wanted to equip myself for the future.