(continued Mr Grierson), the only thing remarkable is, that he has
been as fortunate a man as he was a thochtless laddie. After leaving
the school, he flung his Greek and Latin aside, and that was easily
done, for it was but little that he ever learned, and less that he
remembered, for he paid so little attention to onything he did, that
what he got by heart one day, he forgot the next. In spite o' the
remonstrances o' his friends, naething would haud Willie but he would
be a sailor. Weel, he was put on board o' an American trader, and for
several years there was naething heard o' concerning him, but
accidents that had happened him, and all through his glaikitness.
Sometimes he was fa'ing owre a boat, and was mostly drowned; and at
ither times, we heard o' him fa'ing headlong into the ship's hold;
ance o' his tumbling overboard in the middle o' the great Atlantic;
and at last, o' his fa'ing from the mast upon the deck, and having his
legs broken. It was the luckiest thing that ever happened him. It
brought him to think, and gied him leisure to do it; he was laid up
for twelve weeks, and, during part o' the time, he applied himself to
navigation, in the elements o' which science I had instructed him.
Soon after his recovery, he got the command o' a vessel, and was very
fortunate, and, for several years, he has been sole owner of a number
of vessels, and is reputed to be very rich. He also married weel, as
the phrase runs, for the woman had a vast o' money, only she was--a
mulatto. That, sir, is a' I ken concerning William Armstrong, or, as
ye ca'ed him, Glaikit Willie; for he was a callant that was so
thochtless when under my care, that he never interested me a great
deal. And noo, sir, I shall gie ye a' the particulars I know
concerning the fate o'