Wilson's Border Tales
The Dominie's Class
Chapter 3

In the history o’ Glaikit Willie (continued Mr. Grierson) the only thing remarkable is, that he has been as fortunate a man as he was a thochtless laddie. After leaving 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 other times, we heard o’ his 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 of 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’ Venturesome Jamie.