CHAPTER XIII
SHOWS HOW TOMMY TOOK CARE OF ELSPETH
Thus the first day passed, and others followed in which women, who hadknown Jean Myles, did her children kindnesses, but could not do all theywould have done, for Aaron forbade them to enter his home except onbusiness though it was begging for a housewife all day. Had Elspeth atthe age of six now settled down to domestic duties she would not havebeen the youngest housekeeper ever known in Thrums, but she was neververy good at doing things, only at loving and being loved, and theobservant neighbors thought her a backward girl; they forgot, like mostpeople, that service is not necessarily a handicraft. Tommy discoveredwhat they were saying, and to shield Elspeth he took to housewifery withthe blind down; but Aaron, entering the kitchen unexpectedly, took thebesom from, him, saying:
"It's an ill thing for men folk to ken ower muckle about women's work."
"You do it yoursel'," Tommy argued.
"I said men folk," replied Aaron, quietly.
The children knew that remarks of this sort had reference to theirmother, of whom he never spoke more directly; indeed he seldom spoke tothem at all, and save when he was cooking or giving the kitchen aslovenly cleaning they saw little of him. Monypenny had predicted thattheir presence must make a new man of him, but he was still unsociableand morose and sat as long as ever at the warping-mill, of which heseemed to have become the silent wheel. Tommy and Elspeth always droppedtheir voices when they spoke of him, and sometimes when his mill stoppedhe heard one of them say to the other, "Whisht, he's coming!" Though heseldom, spoke sharply to them, his face did not lose its loneliness atsight of them. Elspeth was his favorite (somewhat to the indignation ofboth); they found this out without his telling them or even showing itmarkedly, and when they wanted to ask anything of him she was deputed todo it, but she did it quavering, and after drawing farther away from himinstead of going nearer. A dreary life would have lain before them hadthey not been sent to school.
There were at this time three schools in Thrums, the chief of them ruledover by the terrible Cathro (called Knuckly when you were a street awayfrom him). It was a famous school, from which a band of three or four oreven six marched every autumn to the universities as determined afterbursaries as ever were Highlandmen to lift cattle, and for the samereason, that they could not do without.
A very different kind of dominie was Cursing Ballingall, who had beendropped at Thrums by a travelling circus, and first became familiar tothe town as, carrying two carpet shoes, two books, a pillow, and asaucepan, which were all his belongings, he wandered from manse to manseoffering to write sermons for the ministers at circus prices. Thatscheme failing, he was next seen looking in at windows in search of acanny calling, and eventually he cut one of his braces into a pair oftawse, thus with a single stroke of the knife, making himself aschool-master and lop-sided for life. His fee was but a penny a week,"with a bit o' the swine when your father kills," and sometimes therewere so many pupils on a form that they could only rise as one. Duringthe first half of the scholastic day Ballingall's shouts and pounceswere for parents to listen to, but after his dinner of crowdy, which israw meal and hot water, served in a cogie, or wooden bowl, languorovercame him and he would sleep, having first given out a sum inarithmetic and announced:
"The one as finds out the answer first, I'll give him his licks."
Last comes the Hanky School, which was for the genteel and for thecommon who contemplated soaring. You were not admitted to it incorduroys or bare-footed, nor did you pay weekly; no, your father calledfour times a year with the money in an envelope. He was shown into theblue-and-white room, and there, after business had been transacted, verynervously on Miss Ailie's part, she offered him his choice betweenginger wine and what she falteringly called wh-wh-whiskey. He partook inthe polite national manner, which is thus:
"You will take something, Mr. Cortachy?"
"No, I thank you, ma'am."
"A little ginger wine?"
"It agrees ill with me."
"Then a little wh-wh-whiskey?"
"You are ower kind."
"Then may I?"
"I am not heeding."
"Perhaps, though, you don't take?"
"I can take it or want it."
"Is that enough?"
"It will do perfectly."
"Shall I fill it up?"
"As you please, ma'am."
Miss Ailie's relationship to the magerful man may be remembered; sheshuddered to think of it herself, for in middle-age she retained themind of a young girl, but when duty seemed to call, this school-mistresscould be brave, and she offered to give Elspeth her schooling free ofcharge. Like the other two hers was a "mixed" school, but she did notwant Tommy, because she had seen him in the square one day, and therewas a leer on his face that reminded her of his father.
Another woman was less particular. This was Mrs. Crabb, of the TappitHen, the Esther Auld whom Jean Myles's letters had so frequently sentto bed. Her Francie was still a pupil of Miss Ailie, and still he worethe golden hair, which, despite all advice, she would not crop. It wasso beautiful that no common boys could see it without wanting to give ita tug in passing, and partly to prevent this, partly to show how highshe had risen in the social scale, Esther usually sent him to schoolunder the charge of her servant lass. She now proposed to Aaron thatthis duty should devolve on Tommy, and for the service she would pay hisfees at the Hanky School.
"We maun all lend a hand to poor Jean's bairns," she said, with a gleamin her eye. "It would have been well for her, Aaron, if she had marriedyou."
"Is that all you have to say?" asked the warper, who had let her enterno farther than the hallan.
"I would expect him to lift Francie ower the pools in wet weather; andit might be as well if he called him Master Francie."
"Is that all?"
"Ay, I ask no more, for we maun all help Jean's bairns. If she couldonly look down, Aaron, and see her little velvets, as she called him,lifting my little corduroys ower the pools!"
Aaron flung open the door. "Munt!" he said, and he looked so dangerousthat she retired at once. He sent Tommy to Ballingall's, and acceptedMiss Ailie's offer for Elspeth, but this was an impossible arrangement,for it was known to the two persons primarily concerned that Elspethwould die if she was not where Tommy was. The few boys he had alreadybegun to know were at Cathro's or Ballingall's, and as they called MissAilie's a lassie school he had no desire to attend it, but where he wasthere also must Elspeth be. Daily he escaped from Ballingall's and hidnear the Dovecot, as Miss Ailie's house was called, and every littlewhile he gave vent to Shovel's whistle, so that Elspeth might know ofhis proximity and be cheered. Thrice was he carried back, kicking, toBallingall's by urchins sent in pursuit, stern ministers of justice onthe first two occasions; but on the third they made him an offer: if hewould hide in Couthie's hen-house they were willing to look for himeverywhere else for two hours.
Tommy's behavior seemed beautiful to the impressionable Miss Ailie, butit infuriated Aaron, and on the fourth day he set off for the parishschool, meaning to put the truant in the hands of Cathro, from whomthere was no escape. Vainly had Elspeth implored him to let Tommy cometo the Dovecot, and vainly apparently was she trotting at his side now,looking up appealingly in his face. But when they reached the gate ofthe parish school-yard he walked past it because she was tugging him,and always when he seemed about to turn she took his hand again, and heseemed to have lost the power to resist Jean Myles's bairn. So they cameto the Dovecot, and Miss Ailie gained a pupil who had been meant forCathro. Tommy's arms were stronger than Elspeth's, but they could nothare done as much for him that day.
Thus did the two children enter upon the genteel career, to theindignation of the other boys and girls of Monypenny, all of whom werecommoners.