A day or two after this, Robert again sitting by his bedside,
'I dinna ken,' he said, 'whether it's richt--but I hae nae fear o'
deith, an' yet I canna say I'm sure aboot onything. I hae seen mony
a ane dee that cud hae no faith i' the Saviour; but I never saw that
fear that some gude fowk wud hae ye believe maun come at the last.
I wadna like to tak to ony papistry; but I never cud mak oot frae
the Bible--and I read mair at it i' the jungle than maybe ye wad
think--that it's a' ower wi' a body at their deith. I never heard
them bring foret ony text but ane--the maist ridiculous hash 'at
ever ye heard--to justifee 't.'
'I ken the text ye mean--"As the tree falleth so it shall lie," or
something like that--'at they say King Solomon wrote, though better
scholars say his tree had fa'en mony a lang year afore that text saw
the licht. I dinna believe sic a thocht was i' the man's heid when
he wrote it. It is as ye say--ower contemptible to ca' an argument.
I'll read it to ye ance mair.'
Robert got his Bible, and read the following portion from that
wonderful book, so little understood, because it is so full of
wisdom--the Book of Ecclesiastes:--
'Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many
days.
'Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not
what evil shall be upon the earth.
'If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the
earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north,
in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
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