We are indebted for the following to her sister: "Her birth was 15th
January, 1803; her death, 19th December, 1811. I take this from her
Bibles.[3] I believe she was a child of robust health, of much vigor of
body, and beautifully formed arms, and, until her last illness, never
was an hour in bed.
[Footnote 3: "Her Bible is before me; _a pair_, as then called; the
faded marks are just as she placed them. There is one at David's lament
over Jonathan."]
"I have to ask you to forgive my anxiety in gathering up the fragments
of Marjorie's last days, but I have an almost sacred feeling to all that
pertains to her. You are quite correct in stating that measles were the
cause of her death. My mother was struck by the patient quietness
manifested by Marjorie during this illness, unlike her ardent, impulsive
nature; but love and poetic feeling were unquenched. When Dr. Johnstone
rewarded her submissiveness with a sixpence, the request speedily
followed that she might get out ere New Year's day came. When asked why
she was so desirous of getting out, she immediately rejoined, 'O, I am
so anxious to buy something with my sixpence for my dear Isa Keith.'
Again, when lying very still, her mother asked her if there was anything
she wished: 'O yes! if you would just leave the room-door open a wee bit,
and play "The Land o' the Leal," and I will lie and _think_, and enjoy
myself' (this is just as stated to me by her mother and mine).
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