EREMA; OR, MY FATHER'S SIN


By R. D. Blackmore



1877



CHAPTER I

A LOST LANDMARK


"The sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me."


These are the words that have followed me always. This is the curse
which has fallen on my life.

If I had not known my father, if I had not loved him, if I had not
closed his eyes in desert silence deeper than the silence of the grave,
even if I could have buried and bewailed him duly, the common business
of this world and the universal carelessness might have led me down the
general track that leads to nothing.

Until my father fell and died I never dreamed that he could die. I knew