The Hardin tribune-herald., 1935-03-08

ihey both say came back in it, but
kt1o" Where my top-coat is.
Il. A QUARTER OF A CENTURY
IL Is quarter of century since
stopped writing this Diary and put the
tlllflg out of my sight. Circumstances
mace me want to look through it again,
ana there it was in the garret, between
the same two boards of waxcloth where
l. hao kept it hidden from Christilly in
the Gays OF my windy youth. had
forgotten that it was written on sermon
paper and such dereliction from pro-
prleiy dlsturbs my conscience now
even more than the vapours set down in
IL about the Roman woman.
or course, am aware now that she
never existed. I have been aware all
theSe twenty-five years that was the
one who went queer and not the self
sacrificing Christilly, and it was to
Watch me that the man Laurie was
| Drought to the manse, and that the
story the Old Lady told me was in
vented for her by DR.. John. My two
good friends had to work their way
through thcrns to clear my disordered
mind. but they managed it by the time
the glen road had come up again like a
spring flower.
i I was long bedded with colds and
| throats. for which the doctor blamed
the burn and in that quiet time I got
rld OF all my delusions, except once in
the middle of my convalescence. when
| escaped everybody and made for the
sheep bield to decide for certain that
the basket was not still there. I dug
for it with my hands as if there had
once been basket, and the only re-
suit of my senseless escapade was that
1t retarded my recovery for another
month.
! I left the glen for good early in Aug
ust, Just before the return of the En-
! gliSll. with whom. though liked them
well. I had no desire to have further
discourse about Diaries or what may
seem to happen when the glen is lock-
ed. I have had two charges since
gave up my first, and for eighteen
years I have been minister in the
flourishing place in a mining district.
Two years after my call I married
a lady of this neighborhood, and it has
been a blessed union, for my Nina is
one in a thousand and the children
grow in grace. tell Nina everything
except about the Roman. that being a
/ passage in my life that never took
place, nor have I sufficient intellect
to be able to speak about it without
doing so as if it were real.
I am thankful to say that the Ro-
| man is to me as if she never had been
and of course she never was, that just
being a slip of the pen. A Scottish
minister has few topcoats in his life
and when any old clothes will do !
sometimes still wear the one that is
in the Diary.
Many a time have been out in the
| old topcoat without remembering how
pretty she looked in it: and this is ma
tural. for she never was in it.
I have only once revisited my first
charge, and it was month ago.
stayed a night at Branders with DR.
John, who has got partner. My old
friends hold on life is now little more
than a bats to a shutter: but he will
still be at it, and some day I suppose
he will be found sitting twisted in g
drift, which is how he would like his
end to be.
I walked down the glen through the
heather, a solitary, unless it may be
said that in a sense the young Adam
I had been walked with me. The En-
! glish were on the hills. though they
we're not my English. lay for two
nights in the old manse, and preached
! twice. They were not great sermons
but are held by some to be my two
best. The lad that once I was thought
himself a gifted preacher but the mar
he became knows better; which i
nothing to boast of. for there is naugh
that houks the spirit from you so mucf
as knowing better.
| Mr.. GALLAGHER. who is the new min
lister, the second in succession to me
was preaching at Branders, and hi
wife, genteel thick lady, sat in my oil
pew, nearest the door. GALLAGHER wa
very civil, but he is not the kind o
man, I think, that the Old Lady woult
have waved goodnight to with he
window blind She, of course, has beel
| away with it this many a year. Their
is a new postman. who, tits said, ha
trudged distance equal to round tn
world since the days of my Posty
| Christilly is married on a provision
merchant in Ireland. and once a yea
sends me present of eggs with
letter enquiring very guardedly abou
my health Joanna Minch and the las
have gone to some other glen.
The only faces I could give nam
to in the Five Houses are the smith AM
two of his sons. That once lusty NAL
is now an old carl sitting on his dyke
having reached that terrible time TO
a Scotsman of knowing that he vii
never be allowed by his offspring to d
another days work for ever and evel
Sometimes, to give him an hours pride
they let him wheel a barrow of man
ure.
There have been great changes a
the manse inside and out. One hard
ly knowns the study now. for there
| a soft torment the fireplace They burr