Reedle Откройте в мобильном приложении
Понятно
Понятно
Для того чтобы воспользоваться закладками, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Отмена
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Отмена
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
Отмена
11
An
engine
whistled
in
the
valley
,
a
signal
-
box
sprang
into
light
,
and
my
vision
passed
.
12
But
as
I
picked
my
way
down
the
hillside
in
the
growing
dusk
I
realized
that
all
memory
of
the
encircling
forest
had
not
gone
from
Woodilee
in
my
childhood
,
though
the
name
of
Melanudrigill
had
been
forgotten
.
I
could
hear
old
Jock
Dodds
,
who
had
been
keeper
on
Calidon
for
fifty
years
,
telling
tales
for
my
delectation
as
he
sat
and
smoked
on
the
big
stone
beside
the
smithy
.
He
would
speak
of
his
father
,
and
his
father
s
father
,
and
the
latter
had
been
a
great
hero
with
his
flintlock
gun
.
"
He
would
lie
in
the
moss
or
three
on
the
winter
mornin
s
,
and
him
an
auld
man
,
and
get
the
wild
swans
and
the
grey
geese
when
they
cam
ower
frae
Clyde
to
Aller
.
Ay
,
and
mony
s
the
deer
he
would
kill
.
"
And
when
I
pointed
out
that
there
were
no
deer
in
the
countryside
,
Jock
shook
his
head
and
said
that
in
his
grandfather
s
day
the
Black
Wood
was
not
all
destroyed
.
"
There
was
a
muckle
lump
on
Windyways
,
and
anither
this
side
o
Reiverslaw
.
"
But
if
I
asked
for
more
about
the
Wood
,
Jock
was
vague
.
Some
said
it
had
been
first
set
by
the
Romans
,
others
by
Auld
Michael
Scott
himself
.
.
.
.
"
A
grand
hidy
-
hole
for
beasts
and
an
unco
bit
for
warlocks
.
"
.
.
.
Its
downfall
had
begun
long
ago
in
the
Dear
Years
,
and
the
last
of
it
had
been
burnt
for
firewood
in
his
father
s
day
,
in
the
winter
of
the
Sixteen
Drifty
Days
.
13
I
remembered
,
too
,
that
there
had
been
places
still
sacrosanct
and
feared
.
To
Mary
Cross
,
a
shapeless
stone
in
a
field
of
bracken
,
no
one
would
go
in
the
spring
or
summer
gloaming
,
but
the
girls
decked
it
with
wild
flowers
at
high
noon
of
Midsummer
Day
Отключить рекламу
14
There
was
a
stretch
of
Woodilee
burn
,
between
the
village
and
the
now
-
drained
Fennan
Moss
,
where
trout
,
it
was
believed
,
were
never
found
.
Above
all
,
right
in
the
heart
of
Reiverslaw
s
best
field
of
turnips
was
a
spring
,
which
we
children
knew
as
Katie
Thirsty
,
but
which
the
old
folk
called
the
Minister
s
Well
,
and
mentioned
always
with
a
shake
of
the
head
or
a
sigh
,
for
it
was
there
,
they
said
,
that
the
minister
of
Woodilee
had
left
the
earth
for
Fairyland
.
15
The
Reverend
David
Sempill
began
his
ministry
in
Woodilee
on
the
fifteenth
day
of
August
in
the
year
of
grace
sixteen
hundred
and
forty
-
four
.
He
was
no
stranger
to
the
glen
,
for
as
a
boy
he
had
spent
his
holidays
with
his
grandfather
,
who
was
the
miller
of
Roodfoot
.
In
that
year
when
the
horn
of
the
Kirk
was
exalted
the
voice
of
a
patron
mattered
less
;
Mr
.
Sempill
had
been
,
as
they
said
,
"
popularly
called
,
"
and
so
entered
upon
his
office
with
the
eager
interest
of
the
parish
which
had
chosen
him
.
A
year
before
he
had
been
licensed
by
the
presbytery
of
Edinburgh
;
he
was
ordained
in
Woodilee
in
the
present
year
on
the
last
Sabbath
of
June
,
and
"
preached
in
"
on
the
first
Sabbath
of
August
by
the
weighty
voice
of
Mungo
Muirhead
,
the
minister
of
Kirk
Aller
.
His
plenishing
-
-
chiefly
books
-
-
had
come
from
Edinburgh
on
eight
pack
-
horses
,
and
,
having
escaped
the
perils
of
Carnwath
Moss
,
was
now
set
out
in
an
upper
chamber
of
the
little
damp
manse
,
which
stood
between
the
kirk
and
Woodilee
burn
.
A
decent
widow
woman
,
Isobel
Veitch
by
name
,
had
been
found
to
keep
his
house
,
and
David
himself
,
now
that
all
was
ready
,
had
ridden
over
on
his
grey
cob
from
his
cousin
s
at
Newbiggin
and
taken
seisin
of
his
new
home
.
He
had
sung
as
he
came
in
sight
of
Woodilee
;
he
had
prayed
with
bowed
head
as
he
crossed
the
manse
threshold
;
but
as
he
sat
in
the
closet
which
he
named
his
"
study
,
"
and
saw
his
precious
books
on
the
shelf
,
and
the
table
before
him
on
which
great
works
would
be
written
,
and
outside
the
half
-
glazed
window
the
gooseberry
bushes
of
the
garden
and
the
silver
links
of
the
burn
,
he
had
almost
wept
with
pure
gratitude
and
content
.
16
His
first
hour
he
had
spent
exploring
his
property
.
The
manse
was
little
and
squat
,
and
gave
lodging
in
its
heather
-
thatched
roof
to
more
than
one
colony
of
bees
.
The
front
abutted
on
the
kirkton
road
,
save
for
a
narrow
strip
of
green
edged
with
smooth
white
stones
from
the
burn
.
The
back
looked
on
a
garden
,
where
stood
a
score
of
apple
trees
,
the
small
wild
fruit
of
which
was
scarcely
worth
the
gathering
.
There
was
also
a
square
of
green
for
bleaching
clothes
,
a
gean
tree
,
a
plot
of
gillyflowers
and
monkshood
,
and
another
of
precious
herbs
like
clary
,
penny
-
royal
,
and
marjoram
.
At
one
end
of
the
manse
stood
a
brewhouse
and
a
granary
or
girnel
,
for
the
storing
of
the
minister
s
stipend
meal
;
at
the
other
a
stable
for
two
beasts
,
a
byre
with
three
stalls
,
a
hen
-
house
of
mud
,
and
,
in
the
angle
of
the
dykes
of
the
kirk
loan
,
a
midden
among
nettles
.
17
Indoors
the
place
was
not
commodious
,
and
even
on
that
warm
August
day
a
chill
struck
upward
from
the
earthen
floors
.
The
low
-
ceiled
lobby
had
no
light
but
the
open
door
.
To
the
right
of
it
was
the
living
-
room
with
a
boarded
ceiling
,
a
wooden
floor
,
and
roughly
plastered
walls
,
where
the
minister
s
eight
-
day
clock
(
by
John
Atchison
,
Leith
,
1601
)
had
now
acclimatized
itself
.
To
the
left
lay
Isobel
s
kitchen
,
with
a
door
leading
to
the
brewhouse
,
and
Isobel
s
press
-
bed
at
the
back
of
it
,
and
a
small
dog
-
hole
of
a
cellar
.
The
upper
story
was
reached
by
a
wooden
staircase
as
steep
as
a
ladder
,
which
opened
direct
into
the
minister
s
bedroom
-
-
an
apartment
of
luxury
,
for
it
had
a
fireplace
.
Отключить рекламу
18
One
door
led
from
it
to
the
solitary
guest
-
chamber
;
another
to
a
tiny
hearthless
room
,
which
was
his
study
or
closet
,
and
which
at
the
moment
ranked
in
his
mind
as
the
most
miraculous
of
his
possessions
.
19
David
ranged
around
like
a
boy
back
from
school
,
and
indeed
with
his
thick
,
sandy
hair
and
ruddy
countenance
and
slim
,
straight
back
he
seemed
scarcely
to
have
outgrown
the
schoolboy
.
He
spilt
the
browst
in
the
brewhouse
,
and
made
a
spectacle
of
himself
with
pease
-
meal
in
the
girnel
.
Isobel
watched
him
anxiously
out
of
doors
,
where
he
sampled
the
fruit
of
the
apple
trees
,
and
with
various
rejected
specimens
took
shots
at
a
starling
in
the
glebe
.
Then
,
in
response
to
his
shouts
,
she
brought
him
a
basin
of
water
and
he
washed
off
the
dust
of
his
morning
ride
.
The
August
sun
fell
warm
on
the
little
yard
;
the
sound
of
the
burn
in
the
glen
,
the
clack
of
the
kirkton
smithy
,
the
sheep
far
off
on
Windyways
,
the
bees
in
the
clove
gillyflowers
,
all
melted
into
the
soothing
hum
of
a
moorland
noontide
.
The
minister
smiled
as
he
scrubbed
his
cheeks
,
and
Isobel
s
little
old
puckered
apple
-
hued
face
smiled
back
.
"
Ay
,
sir
,
"
she
said
,
"
our
lines
is
fallen
intil
a
goodly
place
and
a
pleasant
habitation
.
The
Lord
be
thankit
.
"
And
as
he
cried
a
fervent
amen
and
tossed
the
towel
back
to
her
,
a
stir
at
the
front
door
betokened
his
first
visitors
.
20
These
were
no
less
than
three
in
number
,
neighbouring
ministers
who
had
ridden
over
on
their
garrons
to
bid
the
young
man
welcome
to
Woodilee
.