A Window in Thrums

A Window in Thrums, by J. M.
Barrie

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Title: A Window in Thrums
Author: J. M. Barrie

Release Date: March 26, 2007 [eBook #20914]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
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IN THRUMS***
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Transcriber's note:
The volume from which this e-book was created contained two books,
A Window in Thrums and Auld Licht Idylls.

A WINDOW IN THRUMS
by
J. M. BARRIE
Illustrated

[Frontispiece: Photograph of J. M. Barrie]

New York Charles Scribner's Sons 1918 Copyright, 1896, by Charles
Scribner's Sons

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
THE HOUSE ON THE BRAE II ON THE TRACK OF THE
MINISTER III PREPARING TO RECEIVE COMPANY IV
WAITING FOR THE DOCTOR V A HUMORIST ON HIS CALLING
VI DEAD THIS TWENTY YEARS VII THE STATEMENT OF
TIBBIE BIRSE VIII A CLOAK WITH BEADS IX THE POWER OF
BEAUTY X A MAGNUM OPUS XI THE GHOST CRADLE XII

THE TRAGEDY OF A WIFE XIII MAKING THE BEST OF IT XIV
VISITORS AT THE MANSE XV HOW GAVIN BIRSE PUT IT TO
MAG LOWNIE XVI THE SON FROM LONDON XVII A HOME
FOR GENIUSES XVIII LEEBY AND JAMIE XIX A TALE OF A
GLOVE XX THE LAST NIGHT XXI JESS LEFT ALONE XXII
JAMIE'S HOME-COMING

ILLUSTRATIONS
J. M. BARRIE . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece
The square foot of glass where Jess sat in her chair and looked down
the brae

INTRODUCTION
When the English publishers read "A Window in Thrums" in
manuscript they thought it unbearably sad and begged me to alter the
end. They warned me that the public do not like sad books. Well, the
older I grow and the sadder the things I see, the more do I wish my
books to be bright and hopeful, but an author may not always interfere
with his story, and if I had altered the end of "A Window in Thrums" I
think I should never have had any more respect for myself. It is a
sadder book to me than it can ever be to anyone else. I see Jess at her
window looking for the son who never came back as no other can see
her, and I knew that unless I brought him back in time the book would
be a pain to me all my days, but the thing had to be done.
I think there are soft-hearted readers here and there who will be glad to
know that there never was any Jess. There is a little house still standing
at the top of the brae which can be identified as her house, I chose it for
her though I was never in it myself, but it is only the places in my
books about Thrums that may be identified. The men and women, with
indeed some very subsidiary exceptions, who now and again cross the
square, are entirely imaginary, and Jess is of them. But anything in her

that was rare or beautiful she had from my mother; the imaginary
woman came to me as I looked into the eyes of the real one. And as it is
the love of mother and son that has written everything of mine that is of
any worth, it was natural that the awful horror of the untrue son should
dog my thoughts and call upon me to paint the picture. That, I believe
now, though I had no idea of it at the time, is how "A Window in
Thrums" came to be written, less by me than by an impulse from
behind. And so it wrote itself, very quickly. I have read that I rewrote it
eight times, but it was written once only, nearly every chapter, I think,
at a sitting.

A WINDOW IN THRUMS
CHAPTER I
THE HOUSE ON THE BRAE
On the bump of green round which the brae twists, at the top of the
brae, and within cry of T'nowhead Farm, still stands a one-storey house,
whose whitewashed walls, streaked with the discoloration that rain
leaves, look yellow when the snow comes. In the old days the stiff
ascent left Thrums behind, and where is now the making of a suburb
was only a poor row of dwellings and a