Melodies and memories

BENTYBRAE SKETCHES. 167
had a fairly good opinion of his own abilities. Happily,
too, he was mostly on good terms with himself, as he
usually was with all who acted decently by him. Those who
wronged or offended him seldom got off Scot-free, for
should it happen that Andrew's cheerful good nature gave
out, the one who had caused it soon knew he had a
caustic tongue.
Andrew, in his youthful years, had been unhampered,
and alike unhelped by worldly possessions.
The earliest record available bears that with willing
hands, and with pick, shovel, and wheelbarrow he had been
a prospector for ironstone in an "opencast" not far from
Drumley Water, from which ore was carted over a steep
moorland road to what was either the first, or among the
first, iron works in Scotland.
In this connection he told of a fellow-workman who
got away earlier one evening on account of having a wheel-
barrow to take for repair in the village where he lived.
While still about five minutes walk from the joiner's shop,
six o'clock, the hour for ceasing work, arrived, and at a
handy gateway the barrow was hustled out of sight until
starting time next morning, when this painfully exact speci-
men of a working man finished his job, and went leisurely
to the "opencast," quite impervious to a considerable
amount of banter from his less scrimpit-minded fellow-
workers.
Time passed on. Andrew became possessed of a good
wife, leased a small farm, and became a carrier. These
remarkable advances seeni to show that the man, who was
diligent as a day labourer, had brains as well as willing
hands, and an ambition beyond pick and shovel drudgery.
The difference of temperament in a man and his wife has
often been referred to, and the case of Mr and Mrs
Saunders supplies a forcible illustration. While he chose
to take most things in daily life as calmly as possible, his