Ian Maclaren 
Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. It is difficult to live up to this kind Of thing, and my thoughts drift to the auld schule-house and Domsie. Some one with the love Of God in his heart had built it long ago, and chose a site for the bairns in the sweet pine-woods at the foot of the cart road to Whinnie Knowe and the up land farms. It stood in a clearing with the tall Scotch firs round three sides, and on the fourth a brake of gorse and bramble bushes, through which there was an opening to the road. The clearing was the playground, and in summer the bairns annexed as much wood as they liked, playing tig among the trees, or sitting down at dinner-time on the soft, dry spines that made an elastic carpet everywhere. Domsie used to say there were two pleasant sights for his Old eyes every day. One was to stand in the open at dinner-time and see the flitting forms Of the healthy, rosy sonsie bairns in the wood, and from the doorin the after noon to watch the schule skail, till each group was lost in the kindly shadow, and the merry shouts died away in this quiet place.