Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/169

Rh strung and not like himself. A few days later I saw him at his house, but he was very low. I was there again, but did not see him. He was within ten hours of his last. He was an instrument of great good to his beloved country.

“One of the most interesting friends I met at this time was the gifted John Brown, the author of ‘Rab and his Friends.’ He took me into some of the queerest nooks of the Old Town, and threw a halo around them by his illustrations of ‘The Heart of Midlothian,’ old Davie Deans and his daughter Jeanie, Holyrood, the Castle, and other scenes famous in ancient story. He took me to the home of his venerable father, Rev. Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh, who had recently passed away, and showed me his valuable library, which was to be given to the Theological Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church. He took up an old Greek Testament, and told me the story connected with it. His ancestor, John Brown of Haddington,—one of the fathers of the Secession Church, the author of the Concordance that bears his name, and many other useful works, not the least the Catechism which has been studied by tens of thousands of children in Scotland and America, and the Self-interpreting Bible, which is yet an heirloom in many Scottish families,—was in early years a shepherd among the uplands of Scotland. He was fond of study, and in his spare hours had acquired some knowledge of Latin and Greek. He was anxious to procure a Greek Testament, and got some one to take his place for a day while he walked twenty-four miles to a town where he knew there was a bookstore. He walked all night, and reached the place where the store was, and was standing in front of it when the owner came and opened the door. He had