Taken By Brigands.

I learned to read and to write and to c ; pher—ay , and a bit of mathematics beside . I can take an observation with any captain afloat , and if I am before the mast at this day , my ainself is to blame for it , and nae one else .

I mig ht have had good help for it if I had been canny and steady , for the young laird took a fancy to me . It Avas a lonely country , ye ken , and he had nae companions of his own rank and position in lifeso he was obleeged to take

, up with humble bodies , or go without p laymates at all . But he treated me differently to the others—a ' most , as one might say , as a friend . When he Avas old enough to have a boat of his ainhe made me the keeper

, of it—his " crew , " he used to call me ; and my father and brothers seldom had my company out fishing , for gin a boat could live at all , MacKenzie lvas sure to be cruising about . My mother was pleased enough . I was

her favourite bairn , and she thought I escaped a deal of toil and danger . So far as the toil went , nae doubt she was right enough , but I am not so sure , but Avhat

my father ' s coble Avas the safest berth of the twa . MacKenzie Avas reckless when a lad , and never so happy as Avhen he had a good chance of droAvning , or of breaking his neck hirds ' -nesting over the cliffs . The young laird was an orphan , and under the care of his uncleArchibald MacKenzie

, , who just let him gang his ain gait . There were foul-tongued loons who said that the guardian would nae break his heart if his nephew did come to a sudden end , and so put him into the lairdshi p himself . But let alone that there never was a false

MacKenzie yet , Archibald had no ambition in him . He cared nae mair for laud , or position , or sport , or good living , than I do for the vinegar stuff the French bodies miscall wine . No one who once saw Archibald

Mac-Kenzie ever forgot him . When the laird grew up into a young man he Avent awa to Edinburgh toAvn , and 1 helped my father with the fishing for a time ; but it happened there was a bit of a lassie wha didna know her OAVU mind exactly , that unsettled me ; and when , at last , she took up with another lad , I couldna stop quietly in my am country at all ; and as I got a Avee bit

wild and quarrelsome , and , perhaps , too fond of a drap of whisky , neither father nor mother sought to stop me Avhen I said I'd take a cruize . So I shipped on board a whaler , and cooled my passion in the Arctic circle , and

when I came back I engaged in a vessel bound for the Gold Coast , and cauterized my heart in the tropics . I was pretty Avell cured of love by then , but not of the taste for roving . I nae got that stilland never can bide in one place

, for more than a month at a time . When I had been drifting about the world for seven or eig ht years , I got a bit of a rise in it , and served as mate on board a blockade-runner , chartered to carry contraband of Avar into Crete , which was in a

state of insurrection . The captain was a Frenchman , the other mate a Sicilian , and the crew included an Englishman , a Yankee , a nigger , •and a Chinaman ; the rest were Greeks and Italians . They were the most desperate

set of fellows , taking them around , I ever sailed Avith , and that is saying something ; and the first mate , Giacomo , Avas about the most reckless aud quick-tempered of

the lot of them . But I kept a civil tongue in my head , and Ave were always vera gude friends . Still I wasna sorry , what with the general character of my shipmates , and the great chance of being taken and hanged , Avhen the cruise was oi er ; especially as

, for the first time in my life , I had a little sum of money in my pocket , which I hoped would give me a bit of a start on my ain account . And maybe it would , but the brig in Avhich I was coming home Avas cast away on the coast of Spainand I lost

, everything I had in the world , even to my shirt , and Avas g lad , a Aveek or two afterward , to work my passage to Southampton . Weel , I was standing on the quay of that place , looking doAvn into the water , telling myself it was no use greeting over

spilt milk , and thinking Avhether I would try the Peninsular or Oriental , or gie the royal navy the benefit of my services , when someone clapped me on the shoulder , with an "Eh , Sandy , is that you ? " and turning round I saw my laird , the Mac-Kenzie himsel ' . " How are you getting on 1 " said he . " Not vera weel , I fear . "