Smith. The Smith pedigree has been traced a little more
particularly than the Stevensons', with a similar dearth of
illustrious names. One character seems to have appeared, indeed,
for a moment at the wings of history: a skipper of Dundee who
smuggled over some Jacobite big-wig at the time of the 'Fifteen,
and was afterwards drowned in Dundee harbour while going on board
his ship. With this exception, the generations of the Smiths
present no conceivable interest even to a descendant; and Thomas,
of Edinburgh, was the first to issue from respectable obscurity.
His father, a skipper out of Broughty Ferry, was drowned at sea
while Thomas was still young. He seems to have owned a ship or
two--whalers, I suppose, or coasters--and to have been a member of
the Dundee Trinity House, whatever that implies. On his death the
widow remained in Broughty, and the son came to push his future in
Edinburgh. There is a story told of him in the family which I
repeat here because I shall have to tell later on a similar, but
more perfectly authenticated, experience of his stepson, Robert
Stevenson. Word reached Thomas that his mother was unwell, and he
prepared to leave for Broughty on the morrow. It was between two
and three in the morning, and the early northern daylight was
already clear, when he awoke and beheld the curtains at the bed-
foot drawn aside and his mother appear in the interval, smile upon
him for a moment, and then vanish. The sequel is stereo-type; he
took the time by his watch, and arrived at Broughty to learn it was
the very moment of her death. The incident is at least curious in
having happened to such a person--as the tale is being told of him.
In all else, he appears as a man ardent, passionate, practical,
designed for affairs and prospering in them far beyond the average.
He founded a solid business in lamps and oils, and was the sole
proprietor of a concern called the Greenside Company's Works--'a