American watchman and Delaware advertiser. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1822-1828, 1822-07-26
From "Lights and Shadows Of Scottish Life"
MOSS SIDE.

poor man all the days of his life, which were not
few, for his thin HAIR was now waxing gray. He
had been born and bred on the small moorland farm
which he now occupied and he hoped to die there,
his father and grand father had done before him.
leaving family Just above the more bitter wants OF
this world, Labour, hard and unremitting. had bren
his lot in life but although sometimes severely
tried he had never repined; and through all the
mist and gloom, and even the storms that had as
sailed him. he had lived on from year to year in
that calm and resigned contenmeni which uncon-
sciouslv cheers the hearhstone OF the bsmeless
poor With his own hands he had ploughed, sowed
and reaped his often scany harvest assisted they
grew up by three sons, who, even in bcyhoud
were happy to work along with their father in the
fields. Out of doors or in Gilbert Ainse wa,
never idle. The spade, the shears, the plough
shaft, the sickle, and the fail, all came readily to
hands that grasped them well and not morsel
Of food was eaten under his roof or garment worn
there that was not honestly, severely nobly earned
Gilbert Ainslie was slave, but it was for them ne
loved with a sober and deep affection The thral-
dom under which he lived God had imposed, and it
only served TO give his character shade of silent
gravity, but not austere; to make his smiles fewer
but more heartfelt to calm his soul at grace be :.
fore and after meals and to kndle it in morning
and evening prayer.
There is no need to tell the character Of the wife
u
some and gay withal, her heaven was in her house:
and ner gentle and weaker hands helped to bar the
door against want. OF ten children that had been
born to them, they had lost three and as they had
led, clothed. and educated them respectfully, SO did
they give them who died, respectable funeral -
The living did not grudge to give up. for while,
some of their daily comfort, for the sake Of the
dead and bought, with the little sums which their
industry had saved decent MORNINGS worn on
L.Is-.l III E ~ r
that survived, two sons were farm servants in the
neighborhood, while thres daughters and two sons,
remained at home, growing, or grown up, small,
happy. hard working household.
Many cottages are there n Scotland like Moss
side, and many such humble and virtuous cntagers
as were now beneath its roof Of straw The eve
OF The passing traveller Y mark them or mark them
not. but they stand peacefully in thousands over all
the land; & most beautiful do they make it. through
all its wide valleys and narrow giens-its low Inns
enrircled by the rocky walls of some bonny burn
its green mounts elated with their little GROWING
groves of planetrees--its yellow corn 6eds-its
bare pastoral hilisdes and all its healthy moors on
whose black bosom lie shining or concealed glades
OF excessive yerdure, inhabited by flowers and visit
ed only by the fair flying bees Moss.side was not
beautiful to careless hasty eye; but when looked
on and surveyed it seemed pleasant dwelling -
It's roof, oyergrown with grass and moss. was al |
most green the ground out Of which its wealth
er-stsned walls appeared to grow. The moss be- |
hind it was separated from little garden. by Al
slip of arabic land the dark color Of which
showed tho, it had been won from the wild by pa.
tient industry, and by patient industry reianed.--l
1t required bright sunny day to make Moss side |
fair but then It fair indeed and when the |
little brown mooland birds singing their short
songs among the rushes ard the heather, or lark
perhaps lured thither by some green barley fi,d |
Tor its undisturbed nest, ringing all over the
enlivened solitude the little bleak farm smiled like |
the paradise Of poverty. sad and affecting in its
lone and extreme simplicity. The boys and girls
had made some plots Of Covers among The vegeta-
bes that the little garden supplied for heir homely
meal pnks and carnations brought from walled
gardens OF rich men farther down in the cultivated
strath, grew here with somewhat diminished lustre;
bright show of tulips had strange beauty in the
midst of That moorand and the smell Of roses
mixed well with that Of the clover, the beautiful
fair clover that loves the soil and the air OF Scotland
and gives the rich * balmy milk 10 the poor mans
lips.
In this cottage. Gilbert's youngest child, girl
about nine years Of age, had been lying for week 4
in fever 1t was now saturday evening. and the
ninth day Of the disease. Was she to live or die
1t seemed if very few hours were between the /
innocent creature and Heaven. All the sympto 5 I
were those OF approaching death. The parents
knew well the change that comes over the human
face. whether It be in infancy, youth, PRIME jus,
before the departure OF the spirit and as thew
stood together by Margaret's bed it seemed to them
that the fatal shadow had fallen upon her features.
The surgeon OF the parish lived some miles distant,
but they expected him now every moment, and
many wishful look was directed by fearful eyes ii
along the moor. The daughter who was out at /
service, came anxiously home on this night, the |
only one that could be allowed her, for the poor
must work in their grief and their servants must
do their duty to those whose bread they cat even
when nature is sick-sick at heart. Another of
the brae with what was to be their frugal supper i
The calm noseess spirit of life was in and around
the house, while death seemed dealing with one who