The boy was fond of learning--so fond indeed that when he was at
the factory he would keep his book open before him on the spinning
machine. Most people think "one thing at a time" is a very good
maxim--David thought two things at a time was even better.
At home he was ever ready to lend a hand at house work to save his
mother. "If you bar the door, mother," he would say, "I'll wash the
floor;" and wash the floor he did, times without number!
In later life he used to say he was glad he had thus toiled; and that,
if it were possible to begin life again, he would like to go through
just the same hard training.
He got on quickly at lessons, and became, like his father, a total
abstainer for life. He was fond of serious books; and, reading the
lives of Christian missionaries, he began to wish to be one himself.
Ere long he journeyed from Blantyre near Glasgow (where he had been
working as a factory hand) to London, to prepare for going abroad as a
missionary.
His first address was not very promising. He gave out his text, and
then was obliged to confess that his sermon had quite gone out of his
mind.
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