Robert Malcolm, the second son of his mother, was serving his time
to be a sailor, got a charter, as it was called, to go with to
Norway for deals, which grieved Mrs Malcolm to the very heart; for
there was then no short cut by the canal, as now is, between the
rivers of the Forth and Clyde, but every ship was obligated to go
far away round by the Orkneys, which, although a voyage in the
summer not overly dangerous, there being long days and short nights
then, yet in the winter it was far otherwise, many vessels being
frozen up in the Baltic till the spring; and there was a story told
at the time, of an Irville bark coming home in the dead of the year,
that lost her way altogether, and was supposed to have sailed north
into utter darkness, for she was never more heard of: and many an
awful thing was said of what the auld mariners about the shore
thought concerning the crew of that misfortunate vessel. However,
Mrs Malcolm was a woman of great faith, and having placed her
reliance on Him who is the orphan's stay and widow's trust, she
resigned her bairn into his hands, with a religious submission to
his pleasure, though the mother's tear of weak human nature was on
her cheek and in her e'e. And her faith was well rewarded, for the
vessel brought him safe home, and he had seen such a world of
things, that it was just to read a story-book to hear him tell of
Elsineur and Gottenburg, and other fine and great places that we had
never heard of till that time; and he brought me a bottle of Riga
balsam, which for healing cuts was just miraculous, besides a clear
bottle of Rososolus for his mother, a spirit which for cordiality
could not be told; for though since that time we have had many a
sort of Dantzic cordial, I have never tasted any to compare with
Robin Malcolm's Rososolus. The Lady Macadam, who had a knowledge of
such things, declared it was the best of the best sort; for Mrs
Malcolm sent her ladyship some of it in a doctor's bottle, as well