S. R. Crockett,
The Stickit Minister's Wooing…
(1900)
“ Yabel had a family of strong sons, silent, dour—the doctrine of unquestioning obedience driven into them by their father's right arm and oaken staff. But their love was for their mother, who drifted through the house with a foot light as a falling leaf, and a voice attuned to the murmuring of a hill stream. There was no daughter in the household, and Mary McArthur had come partly to supply the want. ”
S. R. Crockett,
The Stickit Minister's Wooing…
(1900)
“ The words came fiercely from Yabel, with a rising anger in them, a kind of trumpet blare heralding the storm."I am thinking of taking a herd's place at the term!" said Alexander, quietly.Yabel lifted his great body off the dyke-top, on which he had been leaning with his elbows. He towered a good four inches above his son, though my father was always considered a tall man."You—you are going to take a herd's place—at the term—you?" he said, slowly and incredulously."Yes," answered his son; "you will not need me. There is no outgate for me here, and I have my way to make in the world." ”
S. R. Crockett,
The Stickit Minister's Wooing…
(1900)
“ He contented himself with making her life easier and sweeter in that hard upland cantonment of more than military discipline, from whose rocky soil Yabel and his sons dragged the bare necessities of life, as it were, at the point of the bayonet.All the time he was thinking hard behind his broad forehead, this quiet Alexander McQuhirr. He was the third son. His father was a poor man. He had nothing to look for from him. In time Tom would succeed to the farm. It was clear, then, that if he was ever to be anything, he must strike out early for himself. ”
