2 in Edinburgh where I knew him as a student. He was one of the most charming characters I have ever met and it has been
a great job to us to be able to share our home with his son His mother also was a clever and remarkable woman. Willie Howie
has never been very strong but is now fairly healthy and has been for about four years engaged in a wholesale ships stores
concern and as he has no capitoal he seens no prospect before him but to settle down as a clerk in an office. He has lately
been thinking whether it would be better for him to go to Canada with a friend who has been learning 3 farming there as
he says all he wishes or can espect is to make a living to keep himself. When thinking about him I remembered your telling
us about your wine growing and that you can always find work for young men. and Maria also had been thinking about our John
Muir and telling Willie that it might be possible that something might be found to suit him if we consulted you So down comes
Willie to father and me who were asleep in our bed to hear what we thought, father thought the climate would be fine and the
work