THE APPRENTICE UNDER THE SHADOW. 37 



harder to bear, now that this sympathizer was gone. For 

 example, it is still related in the village that the tyrant 

 kept him for hours together, even in the depth of winter, 

 at the burn side, washing and " knocking " the yarn that 

 is, hammering it with a heavy wooden mallet, called the 

 "knocker" or "beetle," on a flat boulder called the 

 " knocking " or " beetling stone," and then wringing it dry 

 in a frame constructed for the purpose. It was a hard piece 

 of work at any time, but, in the frosts of winter, it was pure 

 cruelty. During the whole process, the arms required 

 to be bare and the hands were constantly wet. The 

 consequence was, that his hands became all chilblained 

 and frost-bitten, and broke out in sores difficult to heal. 

 This treatment roused the indignation of the neighbours, 

 but remonstrance with its author only tended to increase 

 it in the same or other directions. One kindly woman, 

 however, had the courage to weave and present him with 

 mittens to cover his bleeding hands and keep them warm. 

 At the susceptible age at which John had arrived, such 

 depressing experiences have always painful effects on the 

 man, however strong the personality and bright the after 

 life. It is scarcely possible for the human plant, more than 

 any other, to escape permanent injury in some degree 

 by living in the shadow or under the crush of a powerful 

 neighbour in its early stages. Happy is it for the man 

 in whom innate elasticity and subsequent light and 

 freedom retrieve these early blights* and twists, and in 

 whom it mainly leaves an intense hatred of oppression 

 in every form. In Duncan, the evil results remained in some 

 measure throughout life, though the bitter experience was 

 fraught in many ways with good. 



