Three generations

A FOREWARNING OF THE END 259
In the summer of 1864 Robert paid his last short
visit to us. During his stay he startled and distressed
us by telling us, at the urgent request of a motherly
friend in Glasgow, who impressed upon him that if he
did not mention the fact she would inform us, that,
in the spring of the same year, he had been seized
with a dangerous illness, the nature and extent of
which he had sedulously and successfully hidden from
us, knowing the sorrow and anxiety the news would
occasion. We got him to take rooms at Helensburgh,
a country and Clydeside town within easy distance of
his office in Glasgow. Our school holidays were near,
and then we could join him, and he would be with us
for a time, going and returning every day to and from
his work. We carried out the intention, and were
together for a few weeks, when he had a second attack
of congestion of the lungs, which proved fatal. He
died on September 11 of the same year (1864). An
eager worker and a gifted man, our one much-loved
man, to whom we could always turn for fullest sym-
pathy and kindest support, passed away in his
prime.
We had seen him struggle bravely against tempta-
tion, disappointments, and defeats. We had reason
to believe he was surmounting them when death came,
bringing not the earthly victory, but the rest which
must have been best.
The Descendants of Old Harry Gibb of Balass.
The descendants of old Harry Gibb of Balass are
almost entirely from one of his ten children. His six
sons left six children. Of the elder sons, Arthur Gibb
married Margaret Sutherland, who had one son. He