OF THE MAN WHO

STANDS HIGHEST IN THE ORATORY

OF MY MEMORY,

ALEXANDER JOHN SCOTT,

I, DARING, PRESUME TO DEDICATE THIS BOOK.





PART I.--HIS BOYHOOD.



CHAPTER I.

A RECOLLECTION.

Robert Falconer, school-boy, aged fourteen, thought he had never
seen his father; that is, thought he had no recollection of having
ever seen him. But the moment when my story begins, he had begun to
doubt whether his belief in the matter was correct. And, as he went
on thinking, he became more and more assured that he had seen his
father somewhere about six years before, as near as a thoughtful boy
of his age could judge of the lapse of a period that would form half