Gordon & Co. he came home at the new year, and presented his father with
the title-deeds of Ellenmount and Netherby. The next day old Andrew was
welcomed on the City Exchange as "Lockerby of Ellenmount, gentleman." "I
hae lived lang enough to hae seen this day," he said, with happy tears;
and David felt a joy in his father's joy that he did not know again for
many years. For while a man works for another there is an ennobling
element in his labor, but when he works simply for himself he has become
the greatest of all slaves. This slavery David now willingly assumed;
the accumulation of money became his business, his pleasure, the sum of
his daily life.

Ten years later both his uncle and father were dead, and both had left
David every shilling they possessed. Then he went on working more
eagerly than ever, turning his tens of thousands into hundreds of
thousands and adding acre to acre, and farm to farm, until Lockerby was
the richest estate in Annandale. When he was forty-five years of age
fortune seemed to have given him every good gift except wife and
children, and his mother, who had nothing else to fret about, worried
Janet continually on this subject.

"Wife an' bairns, indeed!" said Janet; "vera uncertain comforts, ma'am,
an' vera certain cares. Our Master Davie likes aye to be sure o' his
bargains."

"Weel, Janet, it's a great cross to me--an' him sae honored, an' guid
an' rich, wi' no a shilling ill-saved to shame him."

"Tut, tut, ma'am! The river doesna' swell wi' clean water. Naebody's
charged him wi' wrangdoing--that's enough. There's nae need to set him
up for a saint."