Niger

of youth’s dream. And that chance was past, and
the thing was finished.
With sudden energy he mounted his horse and
toured the countryside. In September he came
back to his Ailie with a definite plan. He was to
settle in Peebles and set up a practice there.
To Peebles they moved in October of 1801.
Peebles was a small town wrapped in sleep, as
indifferent to the coming of the new century as it
was to the coming of Mungo. He purchased
another horse to ride the rounds of what patients
the gods of ill-health would send, and settled down
in a house at the head of the Northgate, one of the
large and expensive houses of Peebles, with pillars
at the door and a real carpet in the living-room.
One wanders through it in this later day with a
feeling of pity for Mungo in the stifling constriction
of its mean little rooms. But Mungo was probably
very happy there for a while, with his Ailie and his
growing family.
So 1801 went out and the next year came, and
Dr. Park became a notable and trustworthy citizen
of Peebles. His practice ranged far and wide over
that hilly and poverty-stricken countryside. He
would ride out at the dead of night to some cottar’s
house miles away through sodden tracks, and
labour to help in bringing yet another hungry Scot
into the hungry world in the reek of a one-roomed
cabin. Then he would sit and refresh himself with
a bowl of oatmeal brose and ride home again, with
dyspepsia gnawing at his entrails. He remained
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