He never could get used to those cries. Strangely, however, they didn't seem to affect his father, who was usually busy about the farm or, more often, away on business in Fellburn or Newcastle. Then, in 1887, matters occurred that could have predicted the pattern of his life ahead. It was in this year that Pattie left home to be married; it was in this year too that for the first time his father struck him and he struck him back; and that Moira's seventh baby was born dead. It was also during these twelve months that Pattie, now at the age of twenty, and a more fearless young woman than ever, made a discovery that gave evidence as to why their mother had been such a cool and apparently unemotional lady. It was during this year also he discovered that he would never get to a university, and also that he loved Frances Talbot and was determined to marry her some day ... With further help from Miss Brooker, two years previously Pattie had been awarded a full teaching post, and during this period she had met a young man named John Watson, a teacher in Fellburn, and a very enlightened one, for he had found a way into her heart by being a defender of women's rights, which for the time was a very brave attitude to take.
