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III. THE BANKS OF TAY 65
box on Sunday,-(“Never mind, John,” said Jessie to me, once seeing me in an unchristian state of provocation on this subject, “when we’re married, we’ll jump off boxes all day long, if we like!”)-may have been partly instrumental in giving me that slight bias against Evangelical religion, which I confess to be sometimes traceable in my later works;1 but I never can be thankful enough for having seen, in our own “Old Mause,” the Scottish Puritan spirit in its perfect faith and force; and been enabled therefore afterwards to trace its agency in the reforming policy of Scotland, with the reverence and honour it deserves.2
72. My aunt, a pure dove-priestess, if ever there was one, of Highland Dodona, was of a far gentler temper; but still, to me, remained at a wistful distance. She had been much saddened by the loss of three of her children before her husband’s death. Little Peter, especially, had been the corner-stone of her love’s building; and it was thrown down swiftly:-white swelling came in the knee; he suffered much, and grew weaker gradually, dutiful always, and loving, and wholly patient. She wanted him one day to take half a glass of port wine, and took him on her knee, and put it to his lips. “Not now, mamma; in a minute,” said he; and put his head on her shoulder, and gave one long, low sigh, and died. Then there was Catherine; and-I forget the other little daughter’s name, I did not see them; my mother told me of them;-eagerly always about Catherine, who had been her own favourite. My aunt had been talking earnestly one day with her husband about these two children; planning this and that for their schooling and what not: at night, for a little while she could not sleep; and as she lay thinking, she saw the door of the room open, and two spades come into it, and stand at the foot of her bed. Both the children were dead within brief time afterwards. I was about
1 [See, for instance, such passages as Vol. XXII. p. 433; Vol. XXIV. p. 345; Vol. XXXIII. pp. 112, 116; and Vol. XXVII. p. 546.]
2 [See, for instance, Vol. XXIX. pp. 267-268.]
XXXV .E
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[Version 0.04: March 2008]
