Honest Wullie; and Effie Patterson's Story

In the chill gray of an autumnal morning Janet McAdam awoke in her new home a few days after her father's burial. With the first dawning of consciousness came always the leaden...

Soon after Charles II. was seated on the throne troubles began to thicken around us. Our kirk was early made to feel that it must either come under the yoke of a king as faithle...

Spring came, but Robert Murdoch was still in his chair. It was then evident that not only his feet had been injured, but that he had also contracted disease. The physician plain...

The next morning was bright and sunny, and at an early hour Donald McPherson came to take his wife home. Jamie was to accompany her. The ride in the fresh morning air was deligh...

Among the hills that divide the county of Ayr from Kirkcudbright, and near the bonny Doon, lived, in the early part of this century, a man named William Murdoch, but who was cal...

Belle Murdoch had now reached her sixteenth year. She was tall, well-formed, fair, and a picture of perfect health. No allusion to her going out to service had yet been made. Bu...

Wullie now felt a great relief with regard to ways and means. Ten pounds seemed quite a sum to those frugal cottagers. But as Rab's illness increased Wullie became very anxious...

Four years after Robert Lindsay left home he returned for a visit. He was now a millwright. He had not only mastered his trade, but he had surprised his employers by his origina...

It was Sunday in the early summer, and Sunday in Scotland means more than it does in some countries. Children go to church with their parents through summer's heat and winter's...

Jamie had now entered upon his thirteenth year, and was to commence life's labor as a shepherd-lad. Farmer Lindsay, knowing that it would pain the family to have the lad leave h...

I have a mind to take my reader next to the manse, where my Cousin James lives in peace, and, I might add, plenty; for although his fifty pounds a year would be considered by so...

About two miles from the cottage was a small inn and dramshop familiarly known as Daft Jamie's. The nominal proprietor was James McAllister, but the house was kept by his wife;...

The rolling year again brought the winter. During the coldest weather there was little to be done on the farm, and Wullie and Rab spent many days at home. One very cold evening...

It had been declared a treasonable act to attend a conventicle, and troops were sent through the country with orders to suppress them at the point of the sword; therefore we no...

Having come in possession of Effie Patterson's manuscript, which the reader has just been perusing in print, I, Christie Somerville, her grand-niece, deem that it would not be a...

Time passed and brought the usual changes to the family of honest Wullie. Jamie had finished his college course with honor, and was now a teacher in one of the high schools of E...

The persecution of our kirk lasted through the reigns of Charles II. and James II., a period of twenty-eight years. But the Lord gave us deliverance at last. James was driven fr...

But we were not to escape further molestation. Troops were now sent through Ayrshire and the adjoining counties to make diligent search for such as they should please to conside...

The heather had bloomed but seven years on the grave of honest Wullie when the children were again assembled around the bed of death: their aged mother was about to leave them....

A body of soldiers now ranged through our part of the country, seeking out Covenanters who had taken any part in the late rising, and perpetrating all such deeds of cruelty as t...

Aunt Effie wrote, as you will remember, that Aunt Margaret's daughter, Christie, and her husband made their home where David and Bessie McDougal had so long lived; and she said,...

Let us now look at our friends ten years later. We find some of them at life's sunset. But no storms of adversity have marred the serenity of the declining day of these simple p...

It would not be my painful task to record these and still other mournful scenes if it had been God's time to awake for us; but he who in his very chastenings "doeth great things...

While these changes were taking place in the other families, Annie McPherson's children were not standing still. Thomas MacDuff had long sought the hand of Jennie, but she had k...

While I was yet young I often heard people talk about the troubles that had beset, and were likely still to befall, the Kirk of Scotland. As I grew older I comprehended what was...

Widow Murdoch now gave more time and attention to her children. The youngest had not yet been named, but had always been called "the wee lass." Now that more notice was taken of...

Honest Wullie and his wife could now spend the evening of life in quiet, peaceful comfort. Their cup of happiness was full. All their children were married and lived comfortably...

The daring exploits of Steenie and Robert drew upon them blessings from their friends but curses from their enemies. They were obliged again to exercise the greatest care to hid...

There were hurried footsteps and coming and going one rainy night at the home of the Lindsays. It was not the evening of Alice's marriage, for Hallowmas was long past, and Alice...

The following week Laird Graham came to see about Sandy's difficulty with his neighbor, and he brought his wife to our house. It was two or three years since they had been to se...

Before I tell you more about my father's family I will tell you about some other persons of whom Aunt Effie wrote. It seems to me that you will wish to know if Margaret, my grea...

"Honestly, noo," continued Donald; "Katy and I hae talked it over mair than ance, and we baith think it is the best thing that could be dune. Ye ken there is naething against it...

"Jamie will be home the day!" the happy children shouted, as the wished-for morning at last arrived. He was expected to walk from the town where the stage-coach left him; but Mr...

We wanted Janet with us; but Bessie clung to her, and we did not insist on our wish, being loath to rob our neighbor of the comfort which Janet's company afforded her.

More years passed, bringing two sweet bairns into the home of Archie Lindsay. Still Annie Murdoch would neither be wooed nor wedded. Whether the ever alert Donald McPherson susp...

Long have I been called by my neighbors "Auld Effie," and yet I am but threescore and seven years old. But I have lived in troublous times, and am older than my years. And altho...

More than two years passed pleasantly by, and Belle was still at the farmhouse. She had indeed been treated like a daughter of the house, and Archie had been more than brotherly...

I have written nothing of late about Margaret's children. You will remember that Jamie had a wish to preach the gospel. He did not change his purpose. The providence of God help...

No one, not even the widow, wept more at the grave than did Donald McPherson. The once light-hearted, mischief-loving, whiskey-drinking Donald was overcome with sorrow and contr...

We have now seen Robert Murdoch's children all happily settled in life. God's promises to the fatherless had not failed. Only Wullie's own son Davie is left at home, and the yea...

My readers will be ready to believe me when I tell them that after this I often found myself dreaming of the future, and wondering what it had in store for me. I had plenty to d...

In November, 1666, some of our people at the South became entangled, under great provocation, in a skirmish with some of Turner's soldiers; knowing that this would bring further...

The next morning was the Sabbath. Of course honest Wullie was at home on that morning. It was a strange thing for him to have children in his house. But his face brightened as l...

We will now leave Jamie in school and turn to the other children. Belle was now as old as Jamie was when he was put to work, and Jeannie feared that Wullie would soon speak abou...