the next one. Saying he was dead-tired, for he had been on his feet
since leaving Greenock, Kerr turned in though the sun had not set. An
hour or so after, a number of men came to the wharf to see him. I found
him asleep. They asked if I was the lad the officer took along with him
to be a witness. Gathering in a quiet corner they had me repeat all
that took place. They said they were Liberals and glad to hear the black
nebs had won.

The noise overhead of washing the deck awoke me, and I knew by the
motion of the ship we were sailing. On getting up I saw Troon several
miles behind and Ailsa Craig drawing near. Allan and myself, with Robbie
between us, were snuggled on the lee side of the longboat when Kerr
appeared. He was interested on hearing of the men who came to visit him
and said it was hard to be hounded out of Scotland, which he did not
wish to leave, for saying constitutional reforms were called for. 'I am
no worse used,' he added, 'than the man whom that county we are looking
at starved when he was among them and built monuments to him when he was
dead.' The town of Ayr was in sight and he named several of the points
Burns had named in his songs. 'Think, my laddies, of a man like Burns
being told by the officials over him to keep his Liberal views to
himself, that it was not for him to think but to be silent and obedient.
And he had to swallow their order to prevent his losing the petty office
which stood between his children and starvation.'

The breeze that had taken the brig so far down the firth soon died away,
and we rocked gently south of Ailsa Craig. In the hold folk were busy
getting things in some sort of order, while on deck the sailors were
putting everything in shipshape. This breathing spell was fortunate, for
at dark the wind came in squalls, and on rounding the Mull of Cantyre
the ocean swells sent most of the passengers to their berths seasick. I