Heather belles by Sigma Author:John Sinclair Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. NATIVES AND VISITORS. We now present a few brief pen-portraits of certain persons whose sayings and doings, joys and sorrows, home-life and tr... more »avels, form the main substance of our story. Our first visit shall be to the home of the Free Church minister. Snugly nestling at the base of a green hill-side, in a triangular space of ground by the banks of a noisy torrent, the Manse, built originally in 1844, but enlarged at a later date, was a model of cosy comfort. Nor was this outward look in any way belied in the experience of those whose dwelling it was, nor of those who for longer or shorter periods might enjoy the Christian hospitality of the minister and his sister. The Eeverend Alexander Morrison was, at the time when our narrative opens, a man in the prime of life. Though not tall, his broad-set shoulders and well-knit frame indicated robust health and no ordinary powers of endurance. A profuse mass of light-brown hair, with no signs of a parting save its natural and irregular fall to either side, sprang upward from his face andwas tossed aside from the temples. His brow, weighty rather than lofty, hung over his clear grey eyes like the eaves of a cottage in the glen ; while his mouth assumed, with equal naturalness, the calm gravity becoming his profession, and the happy play of kindliness and humour familiar to those with whom he felt thoroughly at ease. Strong tufty whiskers, of a ruddier tinge than his hair, lined his cheeks, but left clear between them a bold and commanding chin. His mental powers were acute rather than great; his sympathies were narrow but kindly; and his whole character was pervaded by deep, though unobtrusive, piety. As a preacher, he was clear and practical, though in no sense brilliant; and if, as was always the case, he was re...« less