Robert always took the lead in the family, his strong vigorous character seeming to give him the birthright.
His father, Thomas Carter, was a native of Earlston, a man of sterling qualities and much intelligence. His mother, whose maiden name was Agnes Ewing, of Sprouston, near Kelso, was a woman of great originality, bright and quick-witted, and withal an earnest Christian.
Her own lips long years afterwards told the following story of these early days. She had all her life been accustomed to attend church twice a day on Sunday. When her oldest child was born she was obliged to stay at home with it one half of the day, and this was a sore trial. Good old Mr. Lauder, the minister, called one day, and she told him how greatly she felt the privation. “I will give you a text,” said he, “to think of, as you sit at home with the baby: ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.’ ” The words sank into her heart, and were a constant source of strength to her in the rearing of her eleven children. The promise was indeed kept to her, ——the wages given; for few mothers have received such tender and watchful care as did she until she went to her final reward at the age of eighty-two years.
Mr. Walter Carter, one of her younger sons, gives the following sketch of his parents,
