Katherine Swanston, an old maid of 45, who, however, two years
afterwards was the mother of a fine big daughter, so that Aunt Helen
Park's scheme for getting the money for her sister's children failed.
In spite of my father's strong wish to be a farmer, and not a writer or
attorney, there was no capital to start a farm upon, so he was
indentured to Mr. Erskine, and after some years began business in
Melrose for himself, and married Lelen Brodie. His elder brother John
went as a surgeon in the Royal Navy--before he was twenty-one. The
demand for surgeons was great during the war time. He was made a
Freemason before the set age, because in case of capture friends from
the fraternity might be of great use. He did not like his original
profession, especially when after the peace he must be a country
practitioner like his father, at every one's beck and call, so he was
articled to his brother, and lived in the house till he married and
settled at Earlston, five miles off. Uncle John Spence was a scholarly
man, shy but kindly, who gave to us children most of the books we
possessed. They were not in such abundance as children read nowadays,
but they were read and re-read.

In these early readings the Calvinistic teaching of the church and the
shorter catechism was supported and exemplified. The only secular books
to counteract them were the "Evenings at Home" and Miss Edgeworth's
"Tales for Young and Old!" The only cloud on my young life was the
gloomy religion, which made me doubt of my own salvation and despair of
the salvation of any but a very small proportion of the people in the
world. Thus the character of God appeared unlovely, and it was wicked
not to love God; and this was my condemnation. I had learned the
shorter catechism with the proofs from Scripture, and I understood the
meaning of the dogmatic theology. Watts's hymns were much more easy to
learn, but the doctrine was the same. There was no getting away