George MacDonald

Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood George MacDonald

Book Excerptave yet discovered comes to this: that what is right in another man is right in a clergyman; and what is wrong in another man is much worse in a clergyman. Here, however, is one more proof of approaching age. I do not mean the opinion, but the digression."Well, then," I said, "you'll see my face in church on Sunday, if you happen to be there.""Yes, sir; but you see, sir, on the bridge here, the parson is the parson like, and I'm Old Rogers; and I looks in his face, and he looks in mine, and I says to myself, 'This is my parson.' But o' Sundays he's nobody's parson; he's got his work to do, and it mun be done, and there's an end on't."That there was a real idea in the old man's mind was considerably clearer than the logic by which he tried to bring it out."Did you know parson that's gone, sir?" he went on."No," I answered."Oh, sir! he wur a good parson. Many's the time he come and sit at my son's bedside--him that's dead and gone, sir--for a long hour, on a Saturday night, too. And then