The herald., 1896-03-22

at her skirt intoxicated her with the sense
of power. and froze her with the conscious
ness of her responsibility. She looked for
ward. and, seeing him in fancy grow up
and play his diverse part on the world s the
atre, caught in her breadth and lifted up
her courage with lively effort. 1t was
only with the child that she forgot herself
and was at moments natural; yet it was
only with the child that she had conceived
and managed to pursue a scheme of con-
duct. Archie was to be a great man and
a good; minister. if possible. saint for
certain. She tried to engage his mind upon
her favourte books, Rutherfords LET
ters," Scougal's "Grace Aboundng," and
the like. 1t was a common practice of
hers land strange to remember now) that
she would carry the child to the Dell S
Hays, sit with him on the Praying Wea-
vers stone, and talk of the Covenanters
till their tears ran down. Her view of his
tory was wholly artless, design in snow
and ink: upon the one SIDE tender innocents
with psalms upon their lips; upon the
other, the prosecutors, booted, bloody
minded, flushed with wine; suffering
Christ, raging Beelzebub. Prosecutor was
a word that knocked upon the woman S
heart; it was her highest thought of wick
edness, and the mark of it was on her
house. Her great-great- grandfather had
drawn the sword against the Lords an
nointed on the field of Rullion Green, and
breathed his last tradition said) in the
arms of the detestable Dalyell. Nor could
she blind herself to this that had they liv-
ed in these old days, ,Hermiston himself
would have been numbered alongside of
Bloody Mackenzie and the polite Lauder
dale and Rothes, in the band of
Gods immediate enemies. The sense
of this moved her to the more
fervor; she had voice for that
child's marrow; and when one day the
mob hooted and hissed them all in my
lords travelling carriage, and cried,
Down with the prosecutor! down with
Hanging Hermiston!" and mamma covered
her eyes and wept, and papa let down the
glass and looked out upon tn rabble with
his droll formidable face bitter and smil-
ing, as they said he sometimes looked
when he gave sentence, Archie was for the
moment too much amazed to be alarmed,
but he had scarce got his mother by her
self before his shril voice was raised de-
mand1ng an explanations: why had they
called papa prosecutor?
keep me. my precious!' she exclaimed.
keep me- my dear. this is poleetical. Ye
must never ask me anything poleetical,
Erchie. Your father is a great man, my
dear, and it's no for me or you to be judg-
ing him. 1t would be telling us all, if we
behaved ourselves in our several stations
the way your father does in his high Of
fee; and let me hear no more of any such
and undutiful questions! No
that you meant to be undutiful, my lamb
your mother kens that-she kens it we'll,
dearie'' and so slid off to safer topics,
and left on the mind of the child an OBJ
scure but ineradicable sense of something
wrong.
Mrs. Weir's philosophy of life was sum-
med in one Observation-Disclosures In her
view of the universe, which was all light
ed UP with a glow out of the doors of hell,
good people must walk there in kind of
ecstasy of tenderness. The beasts and plants
had no souls; they were here but for
day, and let their day pass gently. And
as for the immortal men, on what black, |
downward path were many of them wend- |