OLD RECOLLECTIONS 273 



turnip -headed, decidedly puffed about their 

 craniums, and two of them had developed noses 

 of the strawberry pottle type. 



Referring to the time of my boyhood, I can- 

 not speak with patience of the puritanical, Cal- 

 vinistic teaching to which we were subjected. 

 People of the present day cannot realise the 

 hard, iron-bound superstitious creed, the ter- 

 rible teachings which children, scarcely more 

 than infants, were subjected to from the so- 

 called elect. Such merciful, loving words as 

 "Suffer the little children to come unto Me," 

 and the words of pardon and comfort, " Neither 

 do I condemn thee ; go, and sin no more," 

 were never repeated, to my knowledge, in 

 my childhood's days. Ours was a grim creed, 

 based on the narrowest of lines. The letter 

 of the law and its thunderings were preached 

 with extreme unction. But through that 

 cursed creed I have myself seen the face of 

 more than one young woman, showing up- 

 calm enough then, God knows through the 

 quiet, deep water where rest had been sought. 



For six years the young sons and daughters 

 of one of the sternest head-keepers I have ever 

 known were my constant daily companions. 

 We had strict orders as to where we might 



s* 



