his ain, a doehter of the Laird of Lowth; who after living wi’ him six or seven miserable years, took farewell o’ this world it is to be houpit for a better, the latter pairt o’ her life having been waur than purgatory,—a dull, broken-hearted creature, that left him the father of an only son and heir.
In the course of years and nature, the son, Jamie, grew up a bonny black-haired laddie, fu’ of the milk of human kindness, funey and froliesome; and seemingly determined to make up, in the eyes o’ the world, for the sourness of his father’s disposition, by the sweetness of his ain. In all games and exercises he was the foremost: and no a lass in the parishes of Dysart or Kirkaldy wad have serupled to have set her eap at him.
Mony a grin and mony a bitter word did the laird gie; yet the outbreakings of youth were borne by the gruff auld carle better than could have been expectit. Whether, however as he grew aulder, the father’s temper grew mair fractious, or his affection to his callant grew mair cauld, was hard to discover; and it became visible to all, from the nsage he underwent, and the drudgeries to which he was made to yield, that the matter wad soon be past enduranee of a proud-hearted, free-spirited lad—and so it happened; for, in a fit of resentment and sorrow, he betook himsell to a vessel setting sail frae Leith to the West Indies; leaving to the doure, gruff, auld miser, and to his housekeeper sand-blind
