It is no wonder
therefore poor Jessie had a repugnance to the union, when she
remembered her mother, and the sad lesson her unhappy life and fearful
death contained. It was a feeling difficult to overcome.
"Jessie," sais I, "nature, instead of forbiddin' it, approves of it;
for like takes to like. I don't say it to please you, but you are as
good as he is, or any white man in the world. Your forefathers on your
mother's side are a brave, manly, intelligent race; they are free men,
and have never been subdued or enslaved by any one: and if they have
degenerated at all, it is because they have contracted, as you say,
vices from the white man. You have reason to be proud of being
descended from a race of warriors. On the other hand, your father is a
Highlander, and they too have always been free, because they were
brave; they are the noblest fellows in Europe. As for the English,
there are none now, except in Wales, and they are called
Taffies--which means lunatics, for they are awful proud, and their
mountains are so high, every fellow says his ancestors were descended
from the man in the moon. But the present race are a mixture of
Taffies, French, Danes, Saxons, Scotch, and the Lord knows who all,
and to my mind are all the better of it."
"But the colour," said she.
"As to colour!" said I, "nations differ in every shade, from black up
to chalk white.
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