In Cheviots Glens

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XI. ELSIE ON THE HILLS. "All is alike good to me, Joy or sorrow where so it be; For I have feeling in no thing, But as it were a mazed thing." Chaucer. "What other work in all the world had I But through all turns of fate that face to follow?" William Morris. UR friend Mr. Thorsbrooke had fallen on evil times. When an elderly gentleman enjoys grumbling, he rarely lacks opportunity for indulging in that innocent amusement; the only difference is, that at one time the troubles he complains of are imaginary; at another time they may happen to be real. Mr. Thorsbrooke had made moan over many a fancied misery in his day, but now his catalogue of troubles was most provokingly genuine. To begin with, the prospects of the crops were bad. March had dragged out its thirty-one dull days, each varying from another only in a greater or lesser amount of rain; the proverbial peck of dust had not been forthcoming, and the young seeds were rotting in the soft, damp soil. "Farming brings in nothing now-a-days," he would grumble to Leslie. "If these bad seasons go on much longer, I shall sell off everything and emigrate to America. The country is going to ruin, and the sooner an honest man gets out of it the better. It's all the fault of these Liberals. If I had had my way last October"--and here Mr. Thorsbrooke would break off with an expressive sigh. Yes, it was hard for a man, who had stood by the Queen and the Constitution unflinchingly for thirty years, to see a Liberal Government lording it over the country, a Liberal member sitting for the Burghs, and the tide of revolution sweeping in upon the land. But much worse than politics, because nearer his own doors, were the troubles connected with the church. Sir John Crailing was patron of...