In her inmost heart Annie dedicated herself to the service of Alec
Forbes. Nor was it long before she had an opportunity of helping him.
One Saturday the master made his appearance in black instead of white
stockings, which was regarded by the scholars as a bad omen; and fully
were their prognostications justified, on this occasion, at least. The
joy of the half-holiday for Scotch boys and girls has a terrible weight
laid in the opposite scale--I mean the other half of the day. This
weight, which brings the day pretty much on a level with all other
days, consists in a free use of the Shorter Catechism. This, of course,
made them hate the Catechism, though I am not aware that that was of
any great consequence, or much to be regretted. For my part, I wish the
spiritual engineers who constructed it had, after laying the grandest
foundation-stone that truth could afford them, glorified God by going
no further. Certainly many a man would have enjoyed Him sooner, if it
had not been for their work. But, alas! the Catechism was not enough,
even of the kind. The tormentors of youth had gone further, and
provided what they called Scripture proofs of the various assertions of
the Catechism; a support of which it stood greatly in need.
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