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Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894

"Weir of Hermiston"

I have nae patience wi' black folk."
Then, with a sudden consciousness of the case of Archie, "No that it
maitters for men sae muckle," she made haste to add, "but there's
naebody can deny that it's unwomanly. Long hair is the ornament o'
woman ony way; we've good warrandise for that - it's in the Bible - and
wha can doubt that the Apostle had some gowden-haired lassie in his mind
- Apostle and all, for what was he but just a man like yersel'?"

CHAPTER VI - A LEAF FROM CHRISTINA'S PSALM-BOOK

ARCHIE was sedulous at church. Sunday after Sunday he sat down and
stood up with that small company, heard the voice of Mr. Torrance
leaping like an ill-played clarionet from key to key, and had an
opportunity to study his moth-eaten gown and the black thread mittens
that he joined together in prayer, and lifted up with a reverent
solemnity in the act of benediction. Hermiston pew was a little square
box, dwarfish in proportion with the kirk itself, and enclosing a table
not much bigger than a footstool.


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