woman I ever loved, and though she has now been dead ten years I feel
her loss as keenly as on the first day, and seek only to make myself
worthy of rejoining her in a better world after I have completed my
probation here.

* * * * *




MICHAEL SCOTT


Tom Cringle's Log


Michael Scott was a merchant who turned an unquestioned
literary faculty to excellent account. Born at Cowlairs, near
Glasgow, Scotland, Oct. 30, 1789, at the age of seventeen
Scott was sent to Jamaica to manage a small estate of his
father's, and a few years later entered business at Kingstown.
Both of these occupations necessitated frequent journeys, by
land and by sea, and the experiences gained thereby form the
basis of "Tom Cringle's Log." The story appeared anonymously
at intermittent intervals in "Blackwood's Magazine" (1829-33),
being published in book form in 1834. Its authorship was
attributed, among others, to Captain Marryatt, and so
successfully did Scott himself conceal his identity with it
that the secret was not known until after his death, which
occurred at Glasgow on November 7, 1835. Of its kind, "Tom