THE
STICKIT MINISTER'S WOOING
AND OTHER GALLOWAY STORIES
By
S. R. CROCKETT
LONDON
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
PATERNOSTER ROW
MCM
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
To
The Well-Beloved Memory
of
R. L. S.
to whom, eight years ago, I
dedicated the first series of
the "Stickit Minister" stories
Eight years ago "The Stickit Minister" stoodfriendless without the door of letters. He knewno one within, and feared greatly lest no hand ofwelcome should be held out to him from thosealready within, so that, being encouraged, he toomight pluck up heart of grace to enter.
Yet when the time came, the Stickit One foundnot one, but two right hands outstretched to greethim, which, after all, is as many as any man maygrasp at once. One was reached out to me fromfar-away Samoa. The other belonged to a manwhom, at that time, I knew only as one of the mostthoughtful, sympathetic, and brilliant of Londonjournalists, but who has since become my friend,and at whose instance, indeed, this Second Seriesof "The Stickit Minister" stories has been written.To these two men, the London man of letters andthe Samoan exile, I owe the first and greatestof an author's literary debts—that of a firstencouragement.
They were both men I had never seen; andneither was under any obligation to help me.Concerning the former, still strenuously andgallantly at work among us, I will in this place saynothing further. But, after having kept silencefor eight years lest I should appear as one thatvaunted himself, I may be permitted a wordof that other who sleeps under the green tangle ofVaea Mountain.
Mr. Stevenson and I had been in occasionalcommunication since about the year 1886, when,in a small volume of verse issued during the earlypart of that year, the fragment of a "Transcriptfrom the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's,"chanced to attract his attention. He wroteimmediately, with that beautiful natural generosity ofappreciation of his, to ask the author to finishhis translation in verse, and to proceed to otherdramatic passages, some of which, chiefly fromIsaiah and Job, he specified. I remember that"When the morning stars sang together" wasone of those indicated, and "O, thou afflicted,tossed with tempest and not comforted," another."I have tried my hand at them myself," he addedkindly; "but they were not so good as yourShulamite."
After this he made me more than once thechannel of his practical charity to certain poorminer folk, whom disaster had rendered homelessand penniless on the outskirts of his belovedGlencorse.