138 SPORTING REMINISCENCES 



My own religion was completely forgotten. 

 But they had really been terrified. A miller who 

 lived at the gate was a Catholic and had had his 

 house attacked and his old mother of seventy 

 nearly killed. 



My three had closed doors and shutters and 

 prayed for the south again. 



They were quite happy there once the memory 

 of the 1 2th died out, though the north country 

 cook who afterwards was their dearest friend once 

 rushed up to say she '* could na bide five meenits 

 longer in the house wi griven images, an' Bessy 

 had twa be her bedside." 



Bessy following her in, they engaged in a theo- 

 logical discussion of some heat in which one 

 vilified anything that was called a saint, and the 

 other quite held her own by affirming that the 

 poor ignorant Northerners were never likely to 

 know of anything so blessed, when all the rehgion 

 they knew of was once a year with guns and banners. 



A severe scolding sent both away in bitter tears, 

 resolved one never to endure the other, but as I 

 presently heard Ellen calling out to Bessy to come 

 ** ta tea an' there was dreepin' toast, an' wud she 

 carry in a hot cup if Bessy had a headache," I 

 presumed that all was well. 



My own habit of invariably beginning to hum 

 an Orange tune in the town troubled me greatly. 

 I could not help it. 



I shall never forget the smell of the flax tree 



