Chapter Forty-Five.
TALK OF A LITTLE MAID SINCE GROWN TALL.
My scholars have a game they call "The Little Minister," in which theboys allow the girls as a treat to join. Some of the characters in thereal drama are omitted as of no importance--the dominie, forinstance--and the two best fighters insist on being Dow and Gavin. Inotice that the game is finished when Dow dives from a haystack, andGavin and the earl are dragged to the top of it by a rope. Thoughthere should be another scene, it is only a marriage, which the girlshave, therefore, to go through without the help of the boys. Thiswarns me that I have come to an end of my story for all except mylittle maid. In the days when she sat on my knee and listened it hadno end, for after I told her how her father and mother were married asecond time she would say, "And then I came, didn't I? Oh, tell meabout me!" So it happened that when she was no higher than my staffshe knew more than I could write in another book, and many a time shesolemnly told me what I had told her, as--
"Would you like me to tell you a story? Well, it's about a minister,and the people wanted to be bad to him, and then there was a flood,and a flood is lochs falling instead of rain, and so of course he wasnearly drownded, and he preached to them till they liked him again,and so they let him marry her, and they like her awful too, and, justthink! it was my father; and that's all. Now tell me about grandmotherwhen father came home."
I told her once again that Margaret never knew how nearly Gavin wasdriven from his kirk. For Margaret was as one who goes to bed in thedaytime and wakes in it, and is not told that there has been a blacknight while she slept. She had seen her son leave the manse the idolof his people, and she saw them rejoicing as they brought him back. Ofwhat occurred at the Jaws, as the spot where Dow had saved two livesis now called, she learned, but not that these Jaws snatched him andher from an ignominy more terrible than death, for she never knew thatthe people had meditated driving him from his kirk. This Thrums isbleak and perhaps forbidding, but there is a moment of the day when asetting sun dyes it pink, and the people are like their town. Thrumswas never colder in times of snow than were his congregation to theirminister when the Great Rain began, but his fortitude rekindled theirhearts. He was an obstinate minister, and love had led him a dance,but in the hour of trial he had proved himself a man.
When Gavin reached the manse, and saw not only his mother but Babbie,he would have kissed them both; but Babbie could only say, "She doesnot know," and then run away crying. Gavin put his arm round hismother, and drew her into the parlor, where he told her who Babbiewas. Now Margaret had begun to love Babbie already, and had prayed tosee Gavin happily married; but it was a long time before she wentupstairs to look for his wife and kiss her and bring her down. "Whywas it a long time?" my little maid would ask, and I had to tell herto wait until she was old, and had a son, when she would find out forherself.
"BABBIE COULD ONLY SAY, 'SHE DOES NOT KNOW.'"]
While Gavin and the earl were among the waters, two men were ontheir way to Mr. Carfrae's home, to ask him to return with them andpreach the Auld Licht kirk of Thrums vacant; and he came, though nowso done that he had to be wheeled about in a little coach. Hecame in sorrow, yet resolved to perform what was asked of him ifit seemed God's will; but, instead of banishing Gavin, all he hadto do was to remarry him and kirk him, both of which things he did,sitting in his coach, as many can tell. Lang Tammas spoke no moreagainst Gavin, but he would not go to the marriage, and he insisted onresigning his eldership for a year and a day. I think he only onceagain spoke to Margaret. She was in the manse garden when he waspassing, and she asked him if he would tell her now why he had beenso agitated when he visited her on the day of the flood. He answeredgruffly, "It's no business o' yours." Dr. McQueen was Gavin's bestman. He died long ago of scarlet fever. So severe was the epidemicthat for a week he was never in bed. He attended fifty caseswithout suffering, but as soon as he had bent over Hendry Munn'syoungest boys, who both had it, he said, "I'm smitted," and wenthome to die. You may be sure that Gavin proved a good friend toMicah Dow. I have the piece of slate on which Rob proved himself agood friend to Gavin; it was in his pocket when we found the body.Lord Rintoul returned to his English estates, and never revisitedthe Spittal. The last thing I heard of him was that he had beenoffered the Lord-Lieutenantship of a county, and had accepted it ina long letter, in which he began by pointing out his unworthiness.This undid him, for the Queen, or her councillors, thinking from hisfirst page that he had declined the honor, read no further, andappointed another man. Waster Lunny is still alive, but has gone toanother farm. Sanders Webster, in his gratitude, wanted Nanny tobecome an Auld Licht, but she refused, saying, "Mr. Dishart is wortha dozen o' Mr. Duthie, and I'm terrible fond o' Mrs. Dishart, butEstablished I was born and Established I'll remain till I'm carriedout o' this house feet foremost."
"But Nanny went to Heaven for all that," my little maid told me."Jean says people can go to Heaven though they are not Auld Lichts,but she says it takes them all their time. Would you like me to tellyou a story about my mother putting glass on the manse dike? Well, mymother and my father is very fond of each other, and once they was inthe garden, and my father kissed my mother, and there was a womanwatching them over the dike, and she cried out--something naughty."
"It was Tibbie Birse," I said, "and what she cried was, 'Mercy on us,that's the third time in half an hour!' So your mother, who heard her,was annoyed, and put glass on the wall."
"But it's me that is telling you the story. You are sure you don'tknow it? Well, they asked father to take the glass away, and hewouldn't; but he once preached at mother for having a white feather inher bonnet, and another time he preached at her for being too fond ofhim. Jean told me. That's all."
No one seeing Babbie going to church demurely on Gavin's arm couldguess her history. Sometimes I wonder whether the desire to be a gypsyagain ever comes over her for a mad hour, and whether, if so, Gavintakes such measures to cure her as he threatened in Caddam Wood. Isuppose not; but here is another story:
"THERE WAS A WOMAN WATCHING THEM OVER THE DIKE."]
"When I ask mother to tell me about her once being a gypsy she says Iam a bad 'quisitive little girl, and to put on my hat and come withher to the prayer-meeting; and when I asked father to let me seemother's gypsy frock he made me learn Psalm forty-eight by heart. Butonce I see'd it, and it was a long time ago, as long as a week ago.Micah Dow gave me rowans to put in my hair, and I like Micah becausehe calls me Miss, and so I woke in my bed because there was noises,and I ran down to the parlor, and there was my mother in her gypsyfrock, and my rowans was in her hair, and my father was kissingher, and when they saw me they jumped; and that's all."
"Would you like me to tell you another story? It is about a littlegirl. Well, there was once a minister and his wife, and they hadn't nolittle girls, but just little boys, and God was sorry for them, so Heput a little girl in a cabbage in the garden, and when they found herthey were glad. Would you like me to tell you who the little girl was?Well, it was me, and, ugh! I was awful cold in the cabbage. Do youlike that story?"
"Yes; I like it best of all the stories I know."
"So do I like it, too. Couldn't nobody help loving me, 'cause I'm sonice? Why am I so fearful nice?"
"Because you are like your grandmother."
"It was clever of my father to know when he found me in the cabbagethat my name was Margaret. Are you sorry grandmother is dead?"
"I am glad your mother and father were so good to her and made her sohappy."
"Are you happy?"
"Yes."
"But when I am happy I laugh."
"I am old, you see, and you are young."
"I am nearly six. Did you love grandmother? Then why did you nevercome to see her? Did grandmother know you was here? Why not? Whydidn't I not know about you till after grandmother died?"
"I'll tell you when you are big."
"Shall I be big enough when I am six?"
"No, not till your eighteenth birthday."
"But birthdays comes so slow. Will they come quicker when I am big?"
"Much quicker."
On her sixth birthday Micah Dow drove my little maid to theschool-house in the doctor's gig, and she crept beneath the table andwhispered--
"Grandfather!"
"Father told me to call you that if I liked, and I like," she saidwhen I had taken her upon my knee. "I know why you kissed me just now.It was because I looked like grandmother. Why do you kiss me when Ilook like her?"
"Who told you I did that?"
"Nobody didn't tell me. I just found out. I loved grandmother too. Shetold me all the stories she knew."
"Did she ever tell you a story about a black dog?"
"No. Did she know one?"
"Yes, she knew it."
"Perhaps she had forgotten it?"
"No, she remembered it."
"Tell it to me."
"Not till you are eighteen."
"But will you not be dead when I am eighteen? When you go to Heaven,will you see grandmother?"
"Yes."
"Will she be glad to see you?"
My little maid's eighteenth birthday has come, and I am still inThrums, which I love, though it is beautiful to none, perhaps, save tothe very done, who lean on their staves and look long at it, havingnothing else to do till they die. I have lived to rejoice in thehappiness of Gavin and Babbie; and if at times I have suddenly had toturn away my head after looking upon them in their home surrounded bytheir children, it was but a moment's envy that I could not help.Margaret never knew of the dominie in the glen. They wanted to tellher of me, but I would not have it. She has been long gone from thisworld; but sweet memories of her still grow, like honeysuckle, up thewhite walls of the manse, smiling in at the parlor window andbeckoning from the door, and for some filling all the air withfragrance. It was not she who raised the barrier between her and me,but God Himself; and to those who maintain otherwise, I say they donot understand the purity of a woman's soul. During the years she waslost to me her face ever came between me and ungenerous thoughts; andnow I can say, all that is carnal in me is my own, and all that isgood I got from her. Only one bitterness remains. When I found Gavinin the rain, when I was fighting my way through the flood, when I sawhow the hearts of the people were turned against him--above all, whenI found Whamond in the manse--I cried to God, making promises to Him,if He would spare the lad for Margaret's sake, and he spared him; butthese promises I have not kept.
_The End._
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Transcriber Note
Table of Contents added.
Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
Greek transliterations are surrounded by ~tildes~.
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