midday
Dom. , seems to me yet but a suckling in swaddling clothes , mewing and peevish in the arms of his mother , that has been long laid in the cold kirkyard , beside her predecessor , in Abraham 's bosom . It is not , however , my design to speak much anent my own affairs , which would be a very improper and uncomely thing , but only of what happened in the parish , this book being for a witness and testimony of my ministry . Therefore , setting out of view both me and mine , I will now resuscitate the concerns of Mrs. Malcolm and her children ; for , as I think , never was there such a visible preordination seen in the lives of any persons , as was seen in that of this worthy decent woman , and her well-doing off-spring . Her morning was raw , and a sore blight fell upon her fortunes ; but the sun looked out on her midday , and her evening closed loun and warm ; and the stars of the firmament , that are the eyes of heaven , beamed as it were with gladness , when she lay down to sleep the sleep of rest . Her son Charles was by this time grown up into a stout buirdly lad , and it was expected that , before the return of the Tobacco trader , he would have been out of his time , and a man afore the mast , which was a great step of preferment , as I heard say by persons skilled in seafaring concerns . But this was not ordered to happen ; for , when the Tobacco trader was lying in the harbour of Virginia in the North Americas , a pressgang , that was in need of men for a man-of-war , came on board , and pressed poor Charles , and sailed away with him on a cruise , nobody , for many a day , could tell where , till I thought of the Lord Eaglesham 's kindness . His lordship having something to say with the king 's government , I wrote to him , telling him who I was , and how jocose he had been when buttoned in my clothes , that he might recollect me , thanking him , at the same time , for his condescension and patronage to Andrew Lanshaw , in his way to the East Indies .