James Matthew Barrie

The Little Minister James Matthew Barrie

Long ago, in the days when our caged blackbirds never saw a king's soldier without whistlingimpudently, "Come ower the water to Charlie," a minister of Thrums was to be married, butsomething happened, and he remained a bachelor. Then, when he was old, he passed in our squarethe lady who was to have been his wife, and her hair was white, but she, too, was still unmarried. The meeting had only one witness, a weaver, and he said solemnly afterwards, "They didna speak, but they just gave one another a look, and I saw the love-light in their een." No more is rememberedof these two, no being now living ever saw them, but the poetry that was in the soul of a batteredweaver makes them human to us for ever. It is of another minister I am to tell, but only to those who know that light when they see it. I amnot bidding good-bye to many readers, for though it is true that some men, of whom Lord Rintoulwas one, live to an old age without knowing love, few of us can have met them, and of women soincomplete I never hear