ALEC FOEBES OF HOWGLEN. BY GEORGE MAC DONALD M.A. AUTHOR OF DAVID ELGINBROD," "ADELA CATHCART. &c. &c. * * * a faith sincere Drawn from the wisdom that begins with fear. WOUDSWORTH. Second Evening Voluntary, IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. 1. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1865. Ttte riyht of Translation is reserved. LONDON: PRINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUG WELL, BLENHEIM HOUSE, BLENHEIM STREET, OXFOBD STREET. ALEC FORBES OF HOWIES, CHAPTER I. THE farm-yard was full of the light of a summer noontide. Nothing can be so desolately dreary as full strong sunlight can be. Not a living creature was to be seen in all the square inclosure, though cow-houses and stables formed the greater part of it, and one end was occupied by a dwelling- house. Away through the gate at the other end, far off in fenced fields, might be seen the dark forms of cattle ; and on a road, at no great distance, a cart crawled along, drawn by one sleepy horse. An occasional weary low came from some im- prisoned cow or animal of the cow-kind ; but not even a cat crossed the yard. The door of the barn was open, showing a polished floor, as empty, bright, and clean as that of a ball-room. And through the opposite door shone the last year's ricks of corn, golden in the sun. VOL. I. . B 22CS921 ' 2 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Now, although a farm-yard is not, either in Scotland or elsewhere, the liveliest of places in ordinary, and still less about noon in summer, yet there was a peculiar cause rendering this one, at this moment, exceptionally deserted and dreary. But there were, notwithstanding, a great many more peo- ple about the place than was usual, only they were all gathered together in the ben-end, or best room of the house a room of tolerable size, with a clean boarded floor, a mahogany table, black with age, and chairs of like material, whose wooden seats, and high, straight backs, were more suggestive of state than repose. Every one of these chairs was occupied by a silent man, whose gaze was either fixed on the floor, or lost in the voids of space. Each wore a black coat, and most of them were in black throughout. Their hard, thick, brown hands hands evidently unused to idleness grasp- ed their knees, or, folded in each other, rested upon them. Some bottles and glasses, with a plate of biscuits, on a table in a corner, seemed to indicate that the meeting was not entirely for business purposes ; and yet there were no signs of any sort of enjoyment. Nor was there a woman to be seen in the company. Suddenly, at the open door, appeared a man whose shirt-sleeves showed very white against his other clothing, which, like that of the rest, was of Alec Forbes of Howglen. 3 decent black. He addressed the assembly thus : " Gin ony o' ye want to see the corp, noo 's yer time." To this offer no one responded ; and, with a slight air of discomfiture, for he was a busy man, and liked bustle, the carpenter turned on his heel, and re-ascended the narrow stairs to the upper room, where the corpse lay, waiting for its final dismission and courted oblivion. " I reckon they Ve a' seen him afore," he re- marked, as he rejoined his companion. "Puir fallow ! He 's unco (uncouthly) worn. There '11 no be muckle o' him to rise again." " George, man, dinna jeest i' the face o' a corp," returned the other. " Ye kenna whan yer ain turn may come." " It 's no disrespeck to the deid, Thamas. That ye ken weel eneuch. I was only pityin' the worn face o' him, leukin up there at ween the buirds, as gin he had gotten what he wanted sae lang, and was thankin' heaven for that same. I jist dinna like to pit the lid ower him." " Hoot ! hoot ! Lat the Lord luik efter his ain. The lid o' the coffin disna hide frae his een." The last speaker was a stout, broad-shouldered man, a stone-mason by trade, powerful, and some- what asthmatic. He was regarded in the neigh- bourhood as a very religious man, but was more B 2 4 Alec Forbes of Howglen. respected than liked, because his forte was rebuke. It was from deference to him that the carpenter had assumed a mental position generating a poetic mood and utterance quite unusual with him, for he was a jolly, careless kind of fellow, well-meaning and good- hearted. So together they lifted the last covering of the dead, laid it over him, and fastened it down. And there was darkness about the dead ; but he knew it not, because he was full of light. For this man was one who, all his life, had striven to be better. Meantime, the clergyman having arrived, the usual religious ceremonial of a Scotch funeral the reading of the word and prayer was going on below. This was all that gave the burial any sacred solemnity; for at the grave the Scotch terror of Popery forbids any observance of a re- ligious character. The voice of the reader was heard in the chamber of death. " The minister 's come, Thamas." " Come or gang," said Thomas, " it 's muckle the same. The word itsel' oot o' his mou' fa's as deid as chaff upo' clay. Honest Jeames there '11 rise ance mair ; but never a word that man says, wi' the croon o' 's heid i' the how o' 's neck, '11 rise to beir witness o' his ministrations." " Hoot, Thamas! It 's no for the likes o' me to flee Alec Forbes of How glen. 5 i' your face but jist say a fair word for the livin' ower the deid, ye ken." " Na, na. It 's fair words maks foul wark ; and the wrath o' the Almichty maun purge this toon or a' be dune. There 's a heap o' graceless gaeins on in 't ; and that puir feckless body, the minister, never gies a pu' at the bridle o' salvation, to hand them aff o' the scaur (cliff) o' hell." The stone-mason generally spoke of the Almighty as if he were in a state of restrained indignation at the wrongs he endured from his children. If Thomas was right in this, then certainly he himself was one of his offspring. If he was wrong, then there was much well worth his unlearning. The prayer was soon over, and the company again seated themselves, waiting till the coffin should be placed in the hearse, which now stood at the door. "We'll jist draw the cork o' anither boatle," whispered a sharp-faced man to his neighbour. And rising, he opened two bottles, and filled the glasses, the second time with wine, red and white, which he handed to the minister first. " Tak' a drappy mair, sir," he whispered in a coaxing, old-wivish tone ; " it 's a lang road to the kirkyard." But the minister declining, most of the others followed his example. One after another they 6 Alec Forbes of Howglen. withdrew to the door, where the hearse was now laden with the harvest of the grave. Falling in behind the body, they moved in an irregular procession from the yard. Outside, they were joined by several more in gigs and on horse- back ; and thus they crept, a curious train, away towards the resting-place of the dead. It were a dreary rest, indeed, if that were their resting-place on the side of a low hill, without tree or shrub to beautify it, or even the presence of an old church to seem to sanctify the spot. There was some long grass in it, though, clambering up as if it sought to bury the gravestones in their turn. And that long grass was a blessing. Better still, there was a sky overhead, in which men cannot set up any gravestones. But if any graveyard be the type of the rest expected by those left behind, it is no wonder they shrink from, joining those that are away. CHAPTER II. WHEN the last man had disappeared, the women, like those of an eastern harem, began to come out. The first that entered the deserted room was a hard-featured, reproachful- looking woman, the sister of the departed. She instantly began to put the place in order, as if she expected her turn to come on the morrow. In a few moments more, a servant appeared, and began to assist her. The girl had been crying, and the tears would still come, in spite of her efforts to re- press them. In the vain attempt to dry her eyes with the corner of her apron, she nearly dropped one of the chairs, which she was simultaneously dusting and restoring to its usual place. Her mistress turned upon her with a kind of cold fierce- ness. " Is that hoo ye shaw yer regaird to the deid, by brackin' the cheirs he left ahin' him ? Lat sit, an' gang an' luik for that puir, doited thing, Annie. 8 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Gin it had only been the Almichty's will to hae taen her, an' left him, honest man !" " Dinna daur to say a word again' the bairn, mem. The deid '11 hear ye, an' no lie still." " Supperstitious quean ! Gang an' do as I tell ye this minute. What business hae ye to gang greetin aboot the hoose ? He was no drap's bluid o' yours !" To this the girl made no reply, but left the room in quest of Annie. When she reached the door, she stood for a moment on the threshold, and, putting her hand over her eyes, shouted " Annie /" But, apparently startled at the sound of her own voice where the unhearing dead had so lately passed, she let the end of the call die away in a quaver, and, without repeating it, set off to find the missing child by the use of her eyes alone. First she went into the barn, and then through the barn into the stack-yard, and then round the ricks one after another, and then into the corn-loft ; but all without avail. At length, as she was be- ginning to feel rather alarmed about the child, she arrived, in the progress of her search, at the door of one of the cow-houses. The moment she looked round the corner into the stall next the door, she stood stock-still, with her mouth \vide open. This stall was occupied by a favourite cow brown, with large white spots, called therefore Brownie. Alec Forbes of How glen. 9 Her manger was full of fresh-cut grass ; and half- buried in this grass, at one end of the manger, with her back against the wall, sat Annie, holding one of the ears of the hornless Brownie with one hand and stroking the creature's nose with the other. She was a delicate child, about nine years old, with blue eyes, half-full of tears, hair somewhere between dark and fair, gathered in a silk net, and a pale face, on which a faint moonlike smile was glimmering. The old cow continued to hold her nose to be stroked. " Is na Broonie a fine coo, Betty ? " said the child, as the maid went on staring at her. " Puir Broonie ! Naebody mindit me, an' sae 1 cam to you, Broonie." And she laid her cheek, white, smooth, and thin, against the broad, flat, hairy forehead of the friendly cow. Then turning again to Betty, she said " Dinna tell auntie whaur I am, Betty. Lat me be. I 'm best here wi' Broonie." Betty said never a word, but returned to her mistress. " Whaur 's the bairn, Betty ? At some mischeef or ither, I '11 wad." " Hoot ! mem, the bairn 's weel eneuch. Bairns maunna be followed like carr (calves}." "Whaur is she?" 10 Alec Forbes of Howglen. " I canna jist doonricht exackly tak npo' me to say," answered Betty ; " but I liae no fear aboot her. She 's a wise bairn." " Ye 're no the lassie's keeper, Betty. I see I maun seek her mysel'. Ye 're aidin' an' abettin' as usual." So saying, Auntie Meg went out to look for her niece. It was some time before the natural order of her search brought her at last to the lyre. By that time Annie was almost asleep in the grass, which the cow was gradually pulling away from under her. Through the open door the child could see the sunlight lying heavy upon the hot stones that paved the yard ; but in here it was so dark- shadowy and cool, and the cow was such good, kindly company, and she was so stife hidden from auntie, as she thought for no one had ever found her there before, and she knew Betty would not tell that, as I say, she was nearly asleep with com- fort, half-buried in Brownie's dinner. But she was roused all at once to a sense of exposure and insecurity. She looked up, and at the same moment the hawk-nose of her aunt came round the door-cheek. Auntie's temper was none the better than usual that it had pleased the Almichty to take the brother whom she loved, and to leave behind the child whom she regarded as a painful responsibility. And now with her small, Alec Forbes of Howglen. 11 fierce eyes, and her big, thin nose both red with suppressed crying she did not dawn upon the sense of Annie as an embodiment of the maternity of the universe. " Ye plaguesome brat !" cried Auntie ; u there has Betty been seekin' ye, and I hae been seekin' ye, far an' near, i' the verra rottan-holes ; an' here ye are, on yer ain father's buryin' day that comes but ance t-akin' up wi' a coo." But the causes of Annie's preference of the society of Brownie to that of Auntie, might have been tolerably clear to an onlooker, without word spoken. For to Annie and her needs, notwith- standing the humble four-footedness of Brownie, there was in her large mild eyes, and her hairy, featureless face, all nose and no nose, more of the divine than in the human form of Auntie Meg. And there was something of an indignation quite human in the way the cow tossed her bound head and neck towards the woman that darkened the door, as if warning her off her premises. But without a word of reply, Annie rose, flung her arms round Brownie's head, kissed the white star on her forehead, disengaged herself from the grass, and got out of the manger. Auntie seized her hand with a rough action, but not ungentle grasp, and led her away to the house. The stones felt very hot to her little bare feet. 12- CHAPTER III. BY this time the funeral was approaching the churchyard at a more rapid pace; for the pedestrians had dropped away one by one, on diverging roads, or had stopped and retraced their steps. But as they drew near the place, the slow trot subsided into a slow walk once more. To an English eye the whole mode would have \ppeaped barbarous. But if the carved and gilded skulls and cross-bones on the hearse were ill-conceived, at least there were no awful nodding plumes to make death hideous with yet more of cloudy dark- ness ; and one of the panels showed, in all the sun- shine that golden rays could yield, the Resurrec- tion of the Lord the victory over the grave. And, again, when they stopped at the gate of the churchyard, they were the hands of friends and neighbours, and not those of cormorant under- takers and obscene mutes, that bore the dead man to his grave. And, once more, if the only rite Alec Forbes of Howglen. 13 they observed, when the body had settled into its place of decay, was the silent uncovering of the head, as a last token of respect and farewell, it may be suggested that the Church of England herself, in all her beautiful service, has no prayer for the departed soul, which cannot be beyond the need of prayer, as the longings that follow it into the region of the Unknown, are not beyond its comfort. Before the grave was quite filled the company had nearly gone. Thomas Crann, the stone-mason, and George Macwha, the icright, alone remained behind, for they had some charge over the ar- rangements, and were now taking a share in cover- ing the grave. At length the last sod was laid upon the mound, and stamped into its place, where soon the earth's broken surface would heal, as society would flow together again, closing over the place that had known the departed, and would know him no more. Then Thomas and George sat down, opposite to each other, on two neigh- bouring tombstones, and, wiping their brows, gave each a sigh of relief, for the sun was hot and op- pressive. " Hech ! it 's a weary warl," said George. " Ye hae no richt to say sae, George," answered Thomas, " for ye hae never met it, an' foughten wi' 't. Ye hae never draan the soord o' the Lord 14 Alec Forbes of How glen. and o' Gideon. Ye hae never broken the pitcher, to lat the lamp shine out, an' I doubt ye hae smo'red it by this time. And sae, whan the bride- groom comes, ye '11 be ill-aff for a licht." " Hoot, man ! dinna speak sic awfu' things i' the verra kirkyard." " Better hear them i' the kirkyard, than at the closed door, George ! " " Weel, but," rejoined Macwha, anxious to turn the current of the conversation, which he found unpleasantly personal, "jist tell me honestly, Thamas Crann, do ye believe, wi' a' yer heart an' sowl, that the deid man Gude be wi' him ! " " No prayin' for the deid i' my hearin', George ! As the tree falleth, so it shall lie." " Weel ! weel ! I didna mean onything." " That I verily believe. Ye seldom do !" "But I jist want to speir," resumed George, with some asperity, getting rather nettled at his companion's persistent discourtesy, "gin ye be- lieve that Jeames Anderson here, honest man, aneath our feet, crumblin' awa', as ye ken, and no ae spoke o' his wheel to the fore, or lang, to tell what his cart was like do ye believe that his honest face will, ae day, pairt the mouls, an' come up again, jist here, i' the face o' the light, the verra same as it vanished whan we pat the lid ower him ? Do ye believe that, Thamas Crann ? " Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. 15 "Na, na, George, man. Ye ken little what ye 're busiest sayin'. It '11 be a glorifeed body that he '11 rise wi'. It 's sown in dishonour, and raised in glory. Hoot ! hoot ! ye are ignorant, man ! " Macwha got more nettled still at his tone of superiority. " Wad it be a glorifeed timmer-leg he rase wi', gin he had been buried wi' a timmer-leg ?" asked he. " His ain leg wad be buried some gait." " Ow ay ! nae doubt. An' it wad come happin' ower the Paceefic, or the Atlantic, to jine its oreeginal stump wad it no *? But supposin' the man had been born wantiri a leg eh, Thamas ? " " George ! George !" said Thomas, with great solemnity, " luik ye efter yer sowl, an' the Lord '11 luik after yer body, legs an' a' ! Man, ye 're no convertit, an' hoo can ye unnerstan' the things o' the speerit ? Aye jeerin', an' jeerin' !" " Weel ! weel ! Thamas," rejoined Macwha, mollified in perceiving that he had not had alto- gether the worst in the tilt of words ; " I wad only tak' the leeberty o' thinkin' that, when He was aboot it, the Almighty micht as weel mak' a new body a'thegither, as gang patchin' up the auld ane. Sae I s' awa hame." "Mind ye yer immortal pairt, George," said Thomas, with a final thrust, as he likewise rose to go home with him on the box of the hearse. 16 Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. " Gin the Lord tak's sic guid care o' the body, Thamas," retorted Macwha, with less of irreve- rence than appeared in his words, " maybe he winna objec' to gie a look to my puir soul as weel ; for they say it's worth a hantle mair. I wish he wad, for he kens better nor me hoo to set aboot the job." So saying, he strode briskly over the graves and out of the churchyard, leaving Thomas to follow as fast as suited his unwieldy strength. 17 CHAPTER IV. ITEANTTME another conversation was going ill on in one of the gigs, as it bore two of the company from the place of tombs, which will serve a little for the purposes of this history. One of the twain was a cousin of the deceased, already incidentally mentioned as taking some direction in the matter of refreshment. His name was no less than Robert Bruce. The other was called Andrew Constable, and was a worthy elder of the kirk. "Weel, Robert," began the latter, after they had jogged on in silence for half a mile or so, "what's to be done wi' little Annie Anderson and her Auntie Meg, noo that the douce man 's gane hame, an' left them theroot, as't war?" " They canna hae that muckle to the fore efter the doctor an' a' 's sattled for." " It 's no to be thought. It 's lang sin' ever he wrought a day's darg (contracted from ( daywerk ')" VOL. I. C 18 Alec Forbes of Howylen. "Jeames Dow luikit weel after the farmin', thougli." " Nae cloobt. He's a guid servant that, to ony man he ca's master. But there canna be muckle siller to the fore." A pause followed. u What think ye noo, Andrew 1" recommenced Bruce. " Ye 're weel kent for an honest an' a lang- heided man. Do ye think that folk wad expec' ony thing o' me gin the warst cam to the warst?" " Weel, Robert, I dinna think there 's muckle guid in luikin' to what fowk micht or micht not expec' o' ye." " That 's jist what I was thinkin' mysel' ; for, ye see, I hae a sma' family o' my ain to haud chow in' already.'' " Nae doot nae doot. But " " Ay, ay ; I ken what ye wad say. I maunna a'thegither disregard what fowk think, 'cause there's the chop (shop); an' gin I ance got no to say an ill name, but jist the wind o' no being sae considerate as I micht hae been, there 's no sayin' but twa or three micht gang by my door, and across to Jamie Mitchell's yonner." " Do ye what 's richt, Robert Bruce, and sae defy fowk and fairy." " Xa, na, that winna aye. work. A body maun tak' care o' their ain, else wha 's to do 't ?" Alec Forbes of Howglen. 19 " "VYeel," rejoined Andrew with a smile, for he understood Bruce well enough, although he pre- tended to have mistaken his meaning u weel, gin the bairnie falls to you, nae doot ye maun take chairge o' her." "I dinna mean Jeames Anderson's bairns I mean my ain bairns." " Robert, whatever way ye decide, I houp it may be sic a deceesion as will admit o' yer castin' yer care upo' Him.'' u I ken a' aboot that, Andrew. But my opeenion upo' that text is jist this that ilka vessel has to haud the fill o' 't, ancfcwhat riiis ower may be com- mitted to Him, for ye can haud it no langer. Them that winna tak tent (care) '11 tak scathe. It's a sweer (lazy) thochtless way to gang to the Al- michty wi' ilka fash. Whan I 'm driven to ane mair, that ane sail aye be Him. Ye min' the story about my namesake and the spidder *?" " Ay, weel eneuch," answered Andrew. But he did not proceed to remark that he could see no connection between that story and the sub- ject in hand, for Brace's question did not take him by surprise, it being well understood that he was in the habit of making all possible and some impossi- ble references to his great namesake. Indeed, he wished everybody to think, though he seldom ven- tured to assert it plainly, that he was lineally c2 20 Alec Forbes of Howglen. descended from the king. Nor did Andrew make further remark of any sort with regard to the fate of Annie or the duty of Bruce, for he saw that his companion wanted no advice only some talk, and possibly some sympathy with his perplexity as to what the world might think of him. But with this perplexity Andrew could accord him very little sympathy indeed ; for he could not take much in- terest in the buttressing of a reputation which he knew to be already quite undermined by widely- reported acts of petty meanness and selfishness. Nor was this fact much to be wondered at, if his principles were really those which he had so openly advocated. Indeed, Andrew knew well that it would be a bad day for poor Annie when she came under Bruce's roof, and therefore sincerely hoped that Auntie Meg might find some way of managing so as to avoid parting with the child ; for he knew, too, that, though her aunt was fierce and hard, she had yet a warm spot somewhere about her heart. Margaret Anderson had known perfectly well for some time that she and Annie must part before long. The lease of the farm would expire at the close of the autumn of next year; and as it had been rather a losing affair for some time, she had no inclination to request a renewal. When her brother\debts should be paid, there would not re- main, even after the sale of the stock, more than Alec Forbes of Howylen. 21 a hundred and fifty pounds. For herself, she believed she must go into service which would hurt her pride more than it would alter her posi- tion, for her hands had done far more of the necessary labour than those of the maid who as- sisted her. Indeed, in her proudest mood, she would have welcomed death rather than idleness. "What was to become of Annie she did not yet see. Meantime there remained for the child just a year more of the native farm, with all the varieties of life which had been so dear to her. Auntie Meg did not spare to put her in mind of the coming change ; but it seemed to Annie so long in coming that it never would come. The impression was worn off by the daily attempt to deepen it, she gave herself up to the childish pleasures with- in her reach, without thinking of their approach- ing loss. 22 CHAPTER V. AND why should Annie think of the future? The future was not : the present was and full of delights. If she did not receive much ten- derness from auntie, at least she was not afraid of her. The pungency of her temper was but as the salt and vinegar which brought out the true flavour of the other numberless pleasures around her. Were her excursions far a-field, perched aloft on Dowie's shoulder, and holding on by the top of his head, or clinging to his back with her arms round his neck, at all the less delightful that auntie was scolding at home ? They would have been less delightful if she had thought of the future ; but she thought only of the present joy ; or rather she took it as it came, and let it play upon her, without thinking about it at all. And if she was late for one of her meals, for Annie had no very correct sense of the lapse of time, and auntie had declared she should go fasting, it was Alec Forbes of Howglen. 23 yet not without her connivance that rosy-faced Betty got the child the best of. everything that was at hand, and put cream in her milk, and butter on her oat cake, Annie managing to consume every thing with satisfaction, notwithstanding the hurdy-gurdy accompaniment of her aunt's audible reflections. And Brownie was always friendly ; ever ready on any serious emergency, when auntie's temper was still less placid than usual, to yield a corner of her manger for a refuge to the child. And the cocks and hens, even the peacock and the turkey-cock, knew her perfectly, and would come \vhen she called them, if not alto- gether out of affection for her, at least out of hope in her bounty ; and she had not yet arrived at the painful wisdom of beginning to question motives a wisdom which misleads more than it guides. She loved them, and that was enough for her. And she would ride the horses to water, sitting sideways on their broad backs like a barefooted lady; for Dowie had such respect for his little mistress, as he called her, that he would never let her get astride " like a laddie," however much she wanted to do so. And when the morning was wet, and the sound of the flails came to her from the barn, she would watch for the moment when her aunt's back would be turned, and then scurry across the yard, like a mouse to its hole; for 24 A lee Forbes of Hoicglen. auntie's first impulse was always to oppose what- ever Annie desired. Once in the barn, she would bury herself like a mole in the straw, and listen to the unfailing metronome of the flails, till she would fall so fast asleep as to awake only when her uncomfortable aunt, believing that at last the awful something or other had happened to the royt lassie, dragged her out ignominiously by the heels. But the royt lassie was one of the gentlest of girls, what adventurousness she had being the result of faith, and not of hardihood. And then came the delights of the harvest-field soon to become great golden splendours to the me- mory. With the reapers she would remain from morning till night, sharing in their meals, and lighten- ing their labour with her gentle frolic. Every day, after the noon-tide meal, she would go to sleep on the shady side of a stook, upon two or three sheaves which Dowie would lay down for her in a choice spot. Indeed the little mistress was very fond of sleep, and would go to sleep anyw r here ; this habit being indeed one of her aunt's chief grounds of complaint. For before hay-time, for instance, when the grass was long in the fields, if she came upon any place that took her fancy, she would tumble down at once, and show that she loved it by going to sleep upon it. Then it was no easy task to fihd her amidst the long 'grass that closed Alec Forbes of Howglen. 25 over her, as over a bird in its nest. But the fact was, this habit indicated a feebleness of consti- tution, to which sleep itself was the best restora- tive. And in the harvest-field at least, no harm could come of it ; for Dooie, as she always called him, watched her like, a mother; so that some- times when she awoke, she would find a second stock of ten sheaves, with a high-uplifted crown- ing pair above, built at right angles to the first, to shelter her from the sun which had peered round the corner, and would soon have stared her awake. The only discomfort of the harvest-field was, that the sharp stubble forced her to wear shoes. But when the corn had all been carried home, and the potatoes had been dug up and heaped in warm pits against the winter, and the mornings and evenings grew cold, and, though still friendly to strong men and women, were rather too keen for delicate little Annie she had to put on both shoes and stockings, which she did not like at all. So w r ith " gentle gliding," through a whole winter of ice and snow, through a whole spring of pro- mises tardily fulfilled, through a summer of glory, and another autumn of harvest joy, the day drew on when they must leave the farm. And still to Annie it seemed as far off as ever. 26 CHAPTEK VI. ONE lovely evening in October, when the shadows were falling from the western sun, and the light that made them was as yellow as a mangold, and a keen little wind was just getting ready to come out and blow, the moment the sun would be out of sight, Annie, who was helping to fasten up the cows for the night, drawing iron chains round their soft necks, saw a long shadow coming in at the narrow entrance of the yard. It came in and in ; and was so long in coming in, that she began to feel as if it was something not quite cannie, and to fancy herself frightened. But, at length, she found that the cause of the great shadow was only a little man ; and that this little man was no other than her father's cousin, Kobert Bruce. Alas ! how little a man may cast a great shadow ! He came up to Annie, and addressed her in the Alec Forbes of How glen. 27 smoothest voice he could find, fumbling at the same time in his coat-pocket. " Hoo are ye the nicht, dawtie 1 Are ye verra weel ? An' hoo 's yer auntie ?" He waited for no reply to any of these questions, but went on. " See what I hae brocht ye frae the chop." So saying, he put into her hand about half-a- dozen sweeties, screwed up in a bit of paper. With this gift he left her, and walked on to the open door of the house, which, as a cousin, he considered himself privileged to enter unannounced even by a knock. He found the mistress of it in the kit- chen, superintending the cooking of the supper. " Hoo are ye the nicht, Marget ?" he said, still in a tone of conciliatory smoothness, through which, however, he could not prevent a certain hardness from cropping out plentifully. " Ye 're busy as usual, I see. Weelj the hand o' the diligent maketh rich, ye ken." " That portion o' the "Word maun be o' leemited application, I doot," returned Marget, as, with- drawing her hand from her cousin's, she turned again to the pot hanging over the fire. " No man daurs to say that my han' has not been the han' o' the diligent ; but Guid kens I 'm nane the richer." " We maunna repine, Marget. Richt or wrang, it's the Lord's will." 28 Alec Forbes of How glen. " It 's easy to you, Robert Bruce, wi' yer siller i' the bank, to speik that gait til a puir lone body like me, that maun slave for my bread whan I 'm no sae young as I micht be. No that I 'm like to dee o' auld age either." " I haena sae muckle i' the bank as some folk may think ; though what there is, is safe eneuch. But I hae a bonny business doun yonner, and it micht be better yet. It 's jist the land o' Goshen, only it wants a wheen mair tap-dressin'." " Tak it frae the bank, than, Robert." "The bank! said ye, Marget ? I canna do that." " And what for no V "'Cause I'm jist like the hens, Marget. Gin they dinna see ae egg i' the nest, they hae no hert to lay anither. I daurna meddle wi' the bank." " Weel, lat sit than ; an' lay awa' at yer leisur'. Hoo 's the mistress ?" " No that weel, and no that ill. The f aimily 's raither sair upo' her. But I canna haud her oot o' the chop for a' that. She 's like mysel' she wad aye be turnin' a bawbee. But what are ye gaein to do yersel', Marget ?" " I 'm gaein to my uncle and aunt auld John Peterson and his wife. They 're gey and frail noo, and they want somebody to luik efter them." Alec Forbes of Howglen. 29 " Than ye 're weel provided for ; Praise be thank- it ! Marget." " Ow, ay ; nae doot," replied Marget, with bitter- ness, of which Bruce took no notice. " And what 's to come o' the bairnie ?" pursued he. " I maun jist get some dacent auld body i' the toon to tak' her in, and lat her gang to the schuil. It's time. The auld fowk wadna pit up wi' her a week." " And what '11 that cost ye, Marget 1" " I dinna ken. But the lassie 's able to pay for her ain upbringin'." " It 's no far 'at a hunner and fifty '11 gang i' thae times, woman. An' it 's a pity to tak frae the prencipal. She '11 be merryin' some day." " Ow, 'deed, maybe. Bairns will be fules." " Weel, cud na ye pit it oot at five per cent., and there wad aye be something comin' o' 't? That wad be seven pun ten i' the year, an' the bairnie micht amaist no freely but nigh-han' be broucht up upo that." Margaret lifted her head and looked at him. "An' wha wad gie five per cent, for her bit siller, whan he can get it frae the bank, on guid security, for four an' a half ?" "Jist mysel', Marget. The puir orphan has naebody but you and me to luik till ; an' I wad 30 Alec Forbes of Howglen. willin'ly do that muckle for her. I '11 tell ye what. I' 11 gie her five per cent, for her siller ; and for the bit interest, I' 11 tak her in wi' my ain bairns, an' she s' hae bit 'and sup wi' them, an' gang to the school wi' them, and syne ef ter a bit we '11 see what comes neist." To Margaret this seemed a very fair offer. It was known to all that the Bruce children were well-enough dressed for their station, and looked well fed ; and although Robert had the character of being somewhat mean, she did not regard that as the worst possible f ault, or one likely to operate for the injury of the child. So she told her cousin that she would think about it ; which was quite as much as he could have expected. He took his leave all but satisfied that he had carried his point, and not a little uplifted with his prospects. For was it not a point worth carrying to get both the money and the owner of it into his own hands? Not that he meant conscious dishonesty to Annie. He only rejoiced to think that he would thus satisfy any expectations that the public might have formed of him, and would enjoy besides a splendid increase of capital for his business ; while he hoped to keep the girl upon less than the in- terest would come to. And then, if anything should happen to her seeing she was not over vigorous the result was worth waiting for; Alec Forbes of Howglen. 31 whereas if she throve he had sons growing up, one of whom might take a fancy to the heiress, and would have facilities for marrying her, &c. &c. ; for Grocer Robert was as deep in his foresight and scheming as King Robert, the crowning triumph of whose intellect, in the eyes of his descendant, was the strewing of the caltrops on the field of Bannockburn. But James Dow was ill-pleased when he heard of the arrangement which was completed in due time. " For," said he, " I canna bide that Bruce. He 's a naisty mean cratur. He wadna fling a bane till a dog, afore he had ta'en a pyke at it himsel'." He agreed, however, with his mistress, that it would be better to keep Annie in ignorance of her destiny as long as possible ; a consideration which sprung from the fact that her aunt, now that she -was on the eve of parting with her, felt a little delicate growth of tenderness sprouting over the old stone wall of her affection for the child, owing its birth, in part, to the doubt whether she would be comf ort- able in her new home. 32 CHAPTER VII. A DAY that is fifty years off comes as certainly as if it had bean in the next week : and Annie's feeling of infinite duration did not stop the sand-glass of Old Time. The day arrived when everything was to be sold by public roitp. A great company of friends, neighbours, and acquaintances gathered ; and much drinking of whisky-punch went on in the kitchen as well as in the room where, a few months before, the solemn funeral - assembly had met. Little Annie speedily understood what all the bustle meant : that tne day of desolation so long foretold by the Cassandra-croak of her aunt, had at length actually arrived, and that all the things she knew so well were vanishing from her sight for ever. She was in the barn when the sound of the auctioneer's voice in the corn-yard made her look over the half-door and listen. Gradually the truth Alec Forles of Hoicglen. 33 dawned upon her ; and she burst into tears over an old rake which she had been accustomed to call hers, because she had always dragged it at hay- making. Then wiping her eyes hastily for, partly from her aunt's hardness, she never could bear to be seen crying, even when a child she fled to Brownie's stall, and burying herself in the manger, began weeping afresh. After a while, the fountain of tears was for the time exhausted, and she sat disconsolately gazing at the old cow feeding away, as if food were everything and a roup nothing at all, when footsteps approached the byre, and, to her dismay, two men, whom she did not know, came in, untied Brownie, and actually led her away from before her eyes. She still stared at the empty space where Brownie had stood, stared like a creature stranded by night on the low coast of Death, before whose eyes in . the morning the sea of Life is visibly ebbing away. At last she started up. How could she sit there without Brownie ! Sobbing so that she could not breathe, she rushed across the yard, into the crowded and desecrated house, and up the stair to her own little room, where she threw herself on the bed, buried her eyes in the pillow, and, overcome with grief, fell fast asleep. When she woke in the morning, she remem- bered nothing of Betty's undressing and putting VOL. I. D 34 Alec Forbes of Howylen. her to bed. The dreadful day that was gone seemed only a dreadful dream, that had left a pain behind it. But when she went out, she found that yesterday would not stay amongst her dreams. Brownie's stall was empty. The horses were all gone, and many of the cattle. Those that remained looked like creatures forgotten. The pigs were gone, and most of the poultry. Two or three favourite hens were left, which auntie was going to take with her. But of all the living creatures she had loved, not one had been kept for Annie. Her life grew bitter with the bitterness of death. In the afternoon, her aunt came up to her room, where she sat in tearful silence, and telling her that she was going to take her into the town, proceeded, without further explanation, to put all her little personal effects into an old hair-trunk, which Annie called her own. Along with some trifles that lay about the room, she threw into the bottom of the box about a dozen of old books, which had been on the chest of drawers since long before Annie could remember. She, poor child, let her do as she pleased, and asked no questions ; for the shadow in which she stood was darkening, and she did not care what came next. For an hour the box stood on the floor like a coffin, and then Betty came, with red eyes and a red nose, Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. 35 and carried it down stairs. Then auntie came up again, dressed in her Sunday clothes. She put on Annie's best frock and bonnet adorning the vic- tim for sacrifice at least, so Annie's face would have suggested and led her down to the door. There stood a horse and cart. In the cart was some straw, and a sack stuffed 'with hay. As auntie was getting into the cart, Betty rushed out from somewhere upon Annie, caught her up, kissed her in a vehement and disorderly manner, and before her mistress could turn round in the cart, gave her into Jarnes Dow's arms, and vanished with strange sounds of choking. Dowie thought to put her in with a kiss, for he dared not speak ; but Annie's arms went round his neck, and she clung to him sobbing clung till she roused the indignation of auntie, at the first sound of whose voice, Dowie was free, and Annie lying in the cart, with her face buried in the straw. Dowie then mounted in front, with his feet on the shaft ; the horse one Annie did not know started off gently ; and she was borne away helpless to meet the unknown. And the road was like the going. She had often been upon it before, but it had never looked as it did now. The first half-mile went through fields whose crops were gone. The stubble was sticking through the grass, and the potato stalks, D2 36 Alec Forbes of Hou-glen. which ought to have been gathered and burnt, lay scattered about all over the brown earth. Then came two miles of moorland country, high, and bleak, and barren, with hillocks of peat in all di- rections, standing beside the black holes whence they had been dug. These holes were full of dark water, frightful to look at ; while along the sides of the road went deep black ditches, half-full of the same dark water. There was no danger of the cart getting into them, for the ruts were too deep to let the wheels out ; but it jolted so dreadfully from side to side, as it crawled along, that Annie was afraid every other moment of being tilted into one of the frightful pools. Across the waste floated now and then the cry of a bird, but other sound there was none in this land of drearihead. Next came some scattered and ragged fields, the skirts of cultivation, which seemed to draw closer and closer together, while the soil grew richer and more hopeful, till, after two miles more, they entered the first straggling precincts of the grey market-town. By this time the stars were shining clear in the cold, frosty sky, and candles or train-oil lamps were burning in most of the houses ; for all these things took place long before gas had been heard of in those quarters. A few faces were pressed close to the window-panes as the cart passed ; and some Alec Forbes of How glen. 37 rather untidy women came to the house-doors to look. And they spoke one to another words which, though inaudible through the noise of the cart, were yet intelligible enough to Annie, with her own forebodings to interpret the expression of their faces. " That '11 be little Annie Anderson," they said. " She 's gaein hame to bide wi' her cousin, Robert Bruce, up i' the Wast AVynd. Puir wee lassie !" For, on the way, Annie had been informed of her destination. But she was too miserable already, because of leaving her old home, to care much to what new one she was going. Had it not been for the absorption of this grief, she could not have been ' indifferent to the prospect of going to live with her cousin, although her dislike to him had never as- sumed a more active form than that of wishing to get away from him, as often as he came near her. The cart stopped at Bruce's shop-door. It looked a heavy door, although the upper half was of glass in small panes. Dowie got down and went into the shop ; and before he returned Annie had time to make some listless observations. The house was a low one, although of two stories, built of grey stone, and thatched. The heavy door was between two windows belonging to the shop, in 38 Alec Forbes of Howglen. each of which burned a single tallow candle, re- vealing to the gaze of Annie, in all the enhancing mystery of candlelight, what she could not but regard as a perfect mine of treasures. For besides calico and sugar, and all the multifarious stock in the combined trades of draper and grocer, Robert Brace sold penny toys, and halfpenny picture- books, and all kinds of confectionary which had been as yet revealed to the belated generations of Glamerton. But she had not to contemplate these wonders long from the outside ; for Bruce came to the door, and, having greeted his cousin and helped her down, turned to take Annie. Dowie had been before him, however, and now held the pale child silent in his arms. He carried her into the shop, and set her down on a sack that stood outside the counter, leaning against it. He then went back to his horse's head. The sack made no bad seat, for it was half-full of turnip-seed ; and upon it Annie sat, and drearily surveyed the circumstances. Auntie was standing in the middle of the shop. Bruce was holding the counter open, and inviting her to enter. " Ye '11 come in and tak a cup o' tay, efter yer journey, Marget ?" said he. " Na, I thank ye, Robert Bruce. Jeames and Alec Forbes of Howglen. 39 I maun jist turn and gae harae again. There's a hantle to look efter yet, and we maunna neglec' oor wark. The hoose-gear 's a' to be roupit the morn." Then turning to Annie, she said : " Noo, Annie, lass, ye '11 be a guid bairn, and do as ye 're tell't. An' min' and no pyke the things i' the chop." A smile of peculiar import glimmered over Bruce's face at the sound of this injunction. Annie made no reply, but stared at Mr. Bruce, and sat staring. " Good bye to ye, Annie !" said her aunt, and roused her a little from her stupor. She then gave her a kiss the first, as far as the child knew, that she had ever given her and went out. Bruce followed her out, and Dowie came in. He took her up in his arms, and said : " Good bye to ye, my bonnie bairn. Be a guid lass, and ye '11 be ta'en care o'. Dinna forget that. Min' and say yer prayers." Annie kissed him with all her heart, but could not reply. He set her down again, and went out. She heard the harness rattle, and the cart go off. She was left sitting on the sack. Presently Mr. Bruce came in, and passing behind his counter proceeded to make an entry in a book. It could have been no order from poor, 40 Alec Forbes of How glen. homeless Margaret. It was, in fact, a memorandum of the day and the hour when Annie was set down on that same sack so methodical was he ! And yet it was some time before he seemed to awake to the remembrance of the presence of the child. Looking up suddenly at the pale, weary thing, as she sat with her legs hanging lifelessly down the side of the sack, he said pretending to have for- gotten her " Ow, bairn, are ye there yet ?" And going round to her, he set her on the floor, and leading her by the hand through the mysterious gate of the counter, and through a door behind it, called in a sharp decided tone : " Mother, ye 're wanted ! " Thereupon a tall, thin, anxious-looking woman appeared, wiping her hands in her apron. "This is little Miss Anderson," said Bruce, " come to bide wi 's. Gie her a biscuit, and tak' her up the stair till her bed." As it was the first, so it was the last time he called her Miss Anderson, at least while she was one of his household. Mrs. Bruce took Annie by the hand in silence, and led her up two narrow stairs, into a small room with a skylight. There, by the shine of the far-off stars, she undressed her. But she forgot the biscuit ; and, for the first time in her life, Annie went suppeiiess to bed. Alec Forbes of How glen. 41 She lay for a while trying to fancy herself in Brownie's stall among the grass and clover, and so get rid of the vague fear she felt at being in a strange place without light, for she found it un- pleasant not to know what was next her in the dark. But the fate of Brownie and of everything she had loved, came back upon her; and the sorrow drove away the fear, and she cried till she could cry no longer, and then she slept. It is by means of sorrow, sometimes, that He gives his beloved sleep. 42 CHAPTER VIII. SHE woke early, rose, and dressed herself. But there was no water for her to wash with, and she crept down stairs to look for help in this her first need. Nobody, however, was awake. She looked long and wistfully at the house-door, but seeing that she could not open it, she went back to her room. If she had been at home, she would soon have had a joyous good-morrow r from the burst of fresh wind meeting her as she lifted the ready latch, to seek the companionship of yet earlier risers than herself ; but now she was as lonely as if she had anticipated the hour of the resurrection, and was the little only one up of the buried millions. All that she had left of that home was her box, and she would have betaken herself to a desolate brooding over its contents : but it had not been brought up, and neither could she carry it up herself, nor would she open it in the kitchen where it stood. So she sat down on Alec Forbes of Howglen, 43 the side of her bed, and gazed round the room. It was a cheerless room. At home she had had chequered curtains to her bed : here there were none of any kind ; and her eyes rested on nothing but bare rafters and boards. And there were holes in the roof and round the floor, which she did not like. They were not large, but they were dreadful. For they were black, nor did she know where they might go to. And she grew very cold. At length she heard some noise in the house, and in her present mood any human noise was a sound of deliverance. It grew ; was presently en- riched by the admixture of baby-screams, and the sound of the shop-shutters being taken down ; and at last footsteps approached her door. Mrs. Bruce entered, and finding her sitting dressed on her bed, exclaimed : " Ow ! ye can dress yersel ! can ye ?" "Ay, weel that," answered Annie, as cheerily as she could. " But," she added, " I want some water to wash mysel' wi'." " Come doon to the pump, than," said Mrs. Bruce. Annie followed her to the pump, where she washed in a tub. She then ran^ dripping into the house for a towel, and was dried by the hands of Mrs. Bruce in her dirty apron. This mode of washing lasted till the first hoar-frost, after which 44 A lee Forbes of Howglen. there was a basin to be had in the kitchen, with plenty of water and not much soap. By this time breakfast was nearly ready, and in a few minutes more, Mrs. Bruce called Mr. Bruce from the shop, and the children from the yard, and they all sat round the table in the kitchen Mr. Bruce to his tea and oat-cake and butter Mrs. Bruce and the children to badly- made oatmeal porridge and sky-blue milk. This quality of the milk was remarkable, seeing they had cows of their own. But then they sold milk. And if any customer had accused her of watering it, Mrs. Bruce's best answer would have been to show how much better what she sold was than what she retained ; for she put twice as much water in what she used for her own family with the exception of the portion destined for her husband's tea, whose two graces were long and 9 tj ft strong enough for a better breakfast. But then his own was good enough. There were three children, two boys with great jaws the elder rather older than Annie and a very little baby. After Mr. Bruce had prayed for the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon their food, they gobbled down their breakfasts with all noises except articulate ones. When they had finished that is, eaten everything up the Bible was brought ; a psalm was sung, after a fashion not Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. 45 very extraordinary to the ears of Annie, or, indeed, of any one brought up in Scotland ; a chapter was read it happened to tell the story of Jacob's speculations in the money-market of his day and generation ; and the exercise concluded with a prayer of a quarter of an hour, in which the God of Jacob especially was invoked to bless the Braces, His servants, in their basket and in their store, and to prosper the labours of that day in particular. The prayer would have been longer, but for the click of the latch of the shop-door, which brought it to a speedier close than one might have sup- posed even Mr. Bruce' s notions of decency would have permitted. And almost before the Amen was out of his mouth, he was out of the kitchen. When he had served the early customer, he re- turned, and sitting down, drew Annie towards him between his knees, in fact, and addressed her with great solemnity. "Noo, Annie," said he, "yes' get the day to play yersel' ; but ye maun gang to the school the morn. We can hae no idle fowk i' this hoose, sae we maun hae nae words aboot it." Annie was not one to make words about that or anything. She was only too glad to get away from him. Indeed the prospect of school, after what she had seen of the economy of her home, was rather enticing. So she only answered, 46 Alec Forbes of Howgle.n. " Verra weel, sir. Will I gang the clay ?'' Whereupon, finding her so tractable, Mr. Bruce added, in the tone of one conferring a great favour, and knowing that he did so, " Ye can come into the shop for the day, and see what 's gaein on. Whan ye 're a muckle woman, ye may be fit to stan' ahin' the coonter some day yersel' wha kens ?" Robert Bruce regarded the shop as his Bannock- burn, where all his enemies, namely customers, were to be defeated, that he might be enriched with their spoils. It was, therefore, a place of so great interest in his eyes, that he thought it must be in- teresting to everybody else. And, indeed, the permission did awake some ill-grounded expecta- tions in the mind of Annie. She followed him into the shop, and saw quite a fabulous wealth of good things around her ; of which, however, lest she should put forth her hand and take, the militant eyes of Robert Bruce never ceased watching her, with quick-recurring glances, even while he was cajoling some customer into a doubtful purchase. Long before dinner-time arrived, she was heartily sick of the monotony of buying and selling in which she had no share. Xot even a picture- book was taken down from the window for her to look at ; so that she soon ceased to admire even the Alec Forbes of Howylen. 47 picture-books a natural result of the conviction that they belonged to a sphere above her reach. Mr. Bruce, on the other hand, looked upon them as far below the notice of his children, although he derived a keen enjoyment from the transference, by their allurements, of the half-pence of other children from their pockets into his till. " Xaisty trash o' lees," he remarked, appa- rently for Annie's behoof, as he hung the fresh bait up in his window, after two little urchins, with bawbees to spend, had bought a couple of the radi- ant results of literature and art combined. " Naisty trash o' lees only fit for dirrty laddies and lassies." He stood on the watch in his shop like a great spider that ate children ; and his windows were his web. They dined off salt herrings and potatoes much better fare than bad porridge and watered milk. Robert Bruce the younger, who inherited his father's name and disposition, made faces at Annie across the table as often as he judged it prudent to run the risk of discovery ; but Annie was too stupefied with the awful change to mind it much, and indeed required all the attention she had at command, for the arrest of herring bones on their way to her throat. After dinner, business was resumed in the shop, 48 Alec Forbes of Howglen. with at least the resemblance of an increase of vigour, for Mrs. Bruce went behind the counter, and gave her husband time to sit down at the desk to write letters and make out bills. Not that there was much of either sort of clerkship ne- cessary; but Bruce, like Chaucer's Man of Law, was so fond of business, that he liked to seem busier than he was. As it happened to be a half- holiday, Annie was sent with the rest of the chil- dren into the garden to play up and down the walks. " An' min'," said Bruce, " an' haud oot ower frae the dog." In the garden Annie soon found herself at the mercy of those who had none. It is marvellous what an amount of latent tor- ment there is in boys, ready to come out the moment an object presents itself. It is not exactly cruelty. The child that tears the fly to pieces does not re- present to himself the sufferings the insect under- goes ; he merely yields to an impulse to disin- tegrate. So children, even ordinarily good children, are ready to tease any child who simply looks teasable, and so provokes the act. Now the Bruces were not good children, as was natural; and they despised Annie because she was a girl, and because she had no self-assertion. If she had shown herself aggressively disagreeable, they would have made some attempt to conciliate her ; but as Alec Forbes of Howglen. 49 it was, she became at once the object of a succession of spiteful annoyances, varying in intensity with the fluctuating invention of the two boys. At one time they satisfied themselves with making grimaces of as insulting a character as they could produce ; at another they rose to the rubbing of her face with dirt, or the tripping up of her heels. Their persecution bewildered her, and the resulting stupefaction was a kind of support to her for a time ; but at last she could endure it no longer, being really hurt by a fall, and ran crying into the shop, where she sobbed out, " Please, sir, they winna lat me be." "Dinna come into the chop wi' yer stories. Mak' it up amo' yersels." " But they winna mak' it up." Robert Bruce rose indignant at such an inter- ruption of his high calling, and went out with the assumption of much parental grandeur. He was instantly greeted with a torrent of assurances that Annie had fallen, and then laid the blame upon them ; whereupon he turned sternly to her, and said " Annie, gin ye tell lees, ye'll go to hell." But paternal partiality did not prevent him from reading them also a lesson, though of a quite different tone. VOL. I. E ,50 Alec Forbes of Howylen. " Mind, boys," he said, in a condescending whine, " that poor Annie has neither father nor inither ; an' ye maun be kind till her." He then turned and left them for the more im- portant concerns within doors ; and the persecu- tion recommenced, though in a somewhat mitigated form. The little wretches were perfectly unable to abstain from indulging in a pleasure of such intensity. Annie bad indeed fallen upon evil days. I am thus minute in my description of her first day, that my reader, understanding something similar of many following days, may be able to give due weight to the influence of other events, when, in due time, they come to be recorded. But I must not conclude the account without mention- ing something which befell her at the close of the same day, and threatened to be productive of yet more suffering. After worship, the boys crawled away to bed, half-asleep already ; or, I should rather say, only half-awake from their prayers. Annie lingered. " Can ye no tak' aff yer ain claes, as weel as pit them on, Annie "?" asked Mrs. Bruce. " Ay, weel eneuch. Only I wad sair like a bittie o' can'le," was Annie's trembling reply, for she had a sad foreboding instinct now. " Can'le ! Na, na, bairn," answered Mrs. Alec Forbes of Howylen. 51 Bruce. " Ye s' get no can'le here. Ye wad hae the hoose in a low (flame) aboot oor lugs (ears). I canna affoord can'les. Ye can jist mak' a can'le o' yer han's, and fin (feel) yer gait up the twa stairs. There's thirteen steps to the first, and twal to the neist." With choking heart, but without reply, Annie went. Groping her way up the steep ascent, she found her room without any difficulty. As it was again a clear, starlit night, there was light enough for her to find everything she wanted ; and the trouble at her heart kept her imagination from being as active as it would otherwise have been, in recalling the terrible stories of ghosts and dead people with which she was far too familiar. She soon got into bed, and, as a precautionary measure, buried her head under the clothes before she began to say her prayers, which, under the circumstances, she had thought she might be excused for leaving till she had lain down. But her prayers were suddenly interrupted by a terrible noise of scrambling and scratching and scampering in the very room beside her. " I tried to cry oot," she said afterwards, " for I kent 'at it was rottans ; but my tongue booed i' my mou' for fear, and I cudna speak ae word." The child's fear of rats amounted to a frenzied E 2 52 Alec Forbes of Howglen. horror. She dared not move a finger. To get out of bed with those creatures running about the room was as impossible as it was to cry out. But her heart did what her tongue could not do cried out with a great and bitter cry to one who was more ready to hear than Robert and Nancy Bruce. And what her heart cried was this : " O God, tak care o' me frae the rottans." There was no need to send an angel from heaven in answer to this little one's prayer : the cat would do. Annie heard a scratch and a mew at the door. The rats made one frantic scramble, and were still. " It 's pussy !" she cried, recovering the voice for joy that had failed her for fear. Fortified, by her arrival, and still more by the feeling that she was a divine messenger sent to succour her because she had prayed, she sprang out of bed, darted across the room, and opened the door to let her in. A few moments and she was fast asleep, guarded by God's angel, the cat, for whose entrance she took good care ever after to leave the door ajar. There are ways of keeping the door of the mind also, ready as it is to fall to, ajar for the cat. 53 CHAPTER IX. "~VTOO, Annie, pit on yer bonnet, an' gang to .Li the schuil wi' the lave (rest) ; an' be a good girrl." This was the Bruce's parting address to Annie, before he left the kitchen for the shop, after break- fast and worship had been duly observed ; and having just risen from his knees, his voice, as he stooped over the child, retained all the sanctity of its last occupation. It was a quarter to ten o'clock, and the school was some five minutes dis- tant. With a nutter of fearful hope, Annie obeyed. She ran up stairs, made herself as tidy as she could, smoothed her hair, put on her bonnet, and had been waiting a long time at the door when her companions joined her. It was very exciting to look forward to something that might not be disagreeable. As they went, the boys got one on each side of 54 Alec Forbes of Howglen. her in a rather sociable manner. But they had gone half the distance and not a word had been spoken, when Robert Bruce, junior, opened the conversation abruptly. , " Ye '11 get it !" he said, as if he had been brood- ing upon the fact for some time, and now it had broken out. " What '11 1 get ?' asked Annie timidly, for his tone had already filled her with apprehension. " Sic lickins," answered the little wretch, draw- ing back his lips till his canine teeth were fully disclosed, as if he gloated in a carnivorous sort of way over the prospect. " Wonna she, Johnnie f ' " Ay wull she," answered Johnnie, following his leader with confidence. Annie's heart sank within her. The poor little heart was used to sinking now. But she said nothing, resolved, if possible, to avoid all occasion for " getting it." Xot another word was spoken before they reached the school, the door of which was not yet open. A good many boys and a few girls were assembled, waiting for the master, and filling the lane, at the end of which the school stood, with the sound of voices fluctuating through a very com- prehensive scale. In general the school-door was opened a few minutes before the master's arrival, but on this occasion no one happened to have gone Alec Forbes of Howglen, 55 to his house to fetch the key, and the scholars had therefore to wait in the street. None of them took any notice of Annie ; so she was left to study the outside of the school. It was a long, low, thatched building, of one story and a garret, with five win- dows to the lane, and some behind, for she could see light through. It had been a weaving-shop originally, full of hand-looms, when the trade in linen was more prosperous than it was now. From the thatch some of the night's frost was already dripping in slow clear drops. Past the door, which was in a line with the windows, went a gutter, the waters of which sank through a small grating a few steps further on. But there was no water running in it now. Suddenly a boy cried out : " The maister 's comin' !" and instantly the noise sunk to a low murmur. Looking up the lane, which rose consid- erably towards the other end, Annie saw the figure of the descending dominie. He was dressed in what seemed to be black, but was in reality grey, almost as good as black, and much more thrifty. He came down the hill swinging his arms, like op- posing pendulums, in a manner that, made the rapid pace at which he approached like a long- slow trot. With the door-key in his hand, al- ready pointed towards the key-hole, he went right through the little crowd, which cleared a wide 56 Akc Forbes of How glen. path for him, without word or gesture of greeting OD either side. I might almost say he swooped upon the door, for with one hand on the key, and the other on the latch, he seemed to wrench it open the moment he touched it. In he strode, followed at the heels by the troop of boys, big and little, and lastly by the girls last of all, at a short dis- tance, by Annie, like a motherless lamb that fol- lowed the flock, because she did not know what else to do. She found she had to go down a step into a sunk passage or lobby, and then up another step, through a door on the left, into the school. There she saw a double row of desks, with a clear space down the middle between the rows. Each scholar was hurrying to his place at one of the desks, where, as he arrived, he stood. The master already stood in solemn posture at the nearer end of the room on a platform behind his desk, pre- pared to commence the extempore prayer, which was printed in a kind of blotted stereotype upon every one of their brains. Annie had hardly suc- ceeded in reaching a vacant place among the girls when he began. The boys were as still as death while the master prayed ; but a spectator might easily have discovered that the chief good some of them got from the ceremony, was a perfect com- mand of the organs of sound ; for the restraint was limited to those organs ; and projected tongues, Alec Forbes of Howglen. 57 deprived of their natural exercise, turned them- selves, along with winking eyes, contorted features, and a wild use of hands and arms, into the means of telegraphic despatches to all parts of the room, throughout the ceremony. The master, afraid of being himself detected in the attempt to combine prayer and vision, kept his ^ eyelids screwed to- gether tight," and played the spy with his ears alone. The boys and girls, understanding the source of their security perfectly, believed that the eyelids of the master would keep faith with them, and so disported themselves without fear in the delights of dumb show. As soon as the prayer was over, they dropped, with no little noise and bustle, into their seats. But presently Annie was rudely pushed out of her seat by a hoydenish girl, who, arriving late, had stood outside the door till the prayer was over, and then entered unperceived during the subsequent confusion. Some little ones on the opposite form, however, liking the look of her, and so wishing to have her for a companion, made room for her be- side them. The desks were double, so that the two rows at each desk faced each other. "Bible-class come up," were the first words of the master, ringing through the room, and resound- ing awfully in Annie's ears. A moment of chaos followed, during which all 58 Alec Forbes of Howglen. the boys and girls, considered capable of reading the Bible, were arranging themselves in one great crescent across the room in front of the master's desk. Each read a verse neither more nor less often leaving the half of a sentence to be taken up as a new subject in a new key ; thus perverting what was intended* as an assistance to find the truth into a means of hiding it a process con- stantly repeated, and with far more serious results, when the words of truth fall, not into the hands of the incapable, but under the protection of the am- bitious. The chapter that came in its turn was one to be pondered over by the earnest student of human nature, not one to be blundered over by boys who had still less reverence for humanity than they had for scripture. It was a good thing that they were not the sacred fountains of the New Testament that were thus dabbled in not, however, that the latter were considered at all more precious or worthy ; as Saturday and the Shorter Catechism would show. Not knowing the will of the master, Annie had not dared to stand up with the class, although she could read very fairly. A few moments after" it was dismissed, she felt herself overshadowed by an awful presence, and, looking up, saw, as she had expected, the face of the master bending down Alec Forbes of Hoivglen. 59 over her. He proceeded to question her, but for some time she was too frightened to give a rational account of her acquirements, the best of which were certainly not of a kind to be appreciated by the master, even if she had understood them herself sufficiently to set them out before him. For, besides her aunt, who had taught her to read, and nothing more, her only instructors had been Nature, with her whole staff, including the sun, moon, and wind ; the grass, the corn, Brownie the cow, and her own faithful subject, Dowie. Still, it was a great mortification to her to be put into the spell- ing-book, which excluded her from the Bible- class. She was also condemned to follow with an uncut quill, over and over again, a single straight stroke, set her by the master. Dreadfully dreary she found it, and over it she fell fast asleep. Her head dropped on her outstretched arm, and the quill dropped from her sleeping fingers for when Annie slept she all slept. But she was soon roused by the voice of the master. " Ann Anderson !" it called in a burst of thunder to her ear ; and she awoke to shame and confusion, amidst the titters of those around her. Before the morning was over, she was called up, along with some children considerably younger than herself, to read and spell. The master stood before them, armed with a long, thick strap of 60 Alec Forbes of Howglen. horse-hide, prepared by steeping in brine, black and supple with constant use, and cut into fingers at one end, which had been hardened in the fire. Now there was a little pale-faced, delicate-look- ing boy in the class, who blundered a good deal. Everytime he did so, the cruel serpent of leather went at him, coiling round his legs with a sudden, hissing swash. This made him cry, and his tears blinded him so that he could not even see the words which he had been unable to read before. But he still attempted to go on, and still the instru- ment of torture went swish-swash round his little thin legs, raising upon them, no doubt, plentiful blue wales, to be revealed, when he was undressed for the night, to the indignant eyes of pitying mother or aunt, who would yet send him back to the school the next morning without fail. At length either the heart of the master was touched by the sight of his sufferings and repressed weeping, or he saw that he was compelling the impossible ; for he stayed execution, and passed on to the next, who was Annie. It was no wonder that the trembling child, who could read very fairly, should yet, after such an introduction to the ways of school, fail utterly in making anything like coherence of the sentence before her. What she would have done, had she been left to herself, would have been to take the Alec Forbes of Howglen. 61 little boy in her arms and cry too. As it was, she struggled mightily with her tears, and yet she did not read to much better purpose than the poor boy. who was still busy wiping his eyes with his sleeves, alternately^ for he never had had a handkerchief. But being a new-comer, and a girl to boot, and her long frock affording no facilities for this kind of incentive to learning, she escaped for the time. It was a dreadful experience of life, though, that first day at school. Well might the children have prayed with David " Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great ; and let us not fall into the hand of man." And well might the children at many another school respond with a loud Amen ! At one o'clock they were dismissed, and went home to dinner, to return at three. In the afternoon she was set to make figures on a slate. She made figures till her back ached. The monotony of this occupation was relieved only by the sight of the execution of criminal law upon various offending boys ; for, as must be already partially evident, the master was a hard man, with a severe, if not an altogether cruel temper, and a quite savage sense of duty. The punishment was mostly in the form of pandies, blows de- livered with varying force, but generally with the full swing of the tag, as it was commonly called, 62 Alec Forbes of Iloicylen. thrown over the master's shoulder, and brought down with the whole strength of his powerful right arm upon the outstretched hand of the culprit. But there were other modes of punishment, of which the restraints of art would forbid the de- scription, even if it were possible for any writer to conquer his disgust so far as to attempt it. Annie shivered and quaked. Once she burst out crying, but managed to choke her sobs, if she could not hide her tears. A fine-looking boy, three or four years older than herself, whose open countenance was set off by masses of dark drown hair, was called up to re- ceive chastisement, merited or unmerited as the case might be ; for such a disposition as that of Murdoch Malison must have been more than ordi- narily liable to mistake. Justice, according to his idea, consisted in vengeance. And he was fond of justice. He did not want to punish the innocent, it is true ; but I doubt whether the discovery of a boy's innocence was not a disappointment to him. Without a word of expostulation or defence, the boy held out his hand, with his arm at full length, received four stinging blows upon it, grew very red in the face, gave a kind of grotesque smile, and returned to his seat with the suffering hand sent into retirement in his trowsers-pocket. Annie's admiration of his courage as well as of his looks, Alec Forbes of How glen. 63 though perhaps unrecognizable as such by herself, may have had its share with her pity in the tears that followed. Somehow or other, at all events, she made up her mind to bear more patiently the persecutions of the little Bruces, and, if ever her turn should come to be punished, as no doubt it would, whether she deserved it or not, to try to take the whipping as she had seen Alec Forbes take it. Poor Annie ! If it should come to that nervous organizations are so different ! At five, the school was dismissed for the day, not without another extempore prayer. A succession of jubilant shouts arose as the boys rushed out into the lane. Every day to them was a cycle of strife, suffering, and deliverance. Birth and death, with the life-struggle between, were shadowed out in it with this difference, that the God of a corrupt Calvinism, in the person of Murdoch Malison, ruled that world, and not the God revealed in the man Christ Jesus. And most of them having felt the (Jay more or less a burden, were now going home to heaven for the night. Annie, having no home, was amongst the few exceptions. Dispirited and hopeless a terrible condition for a child she wondered how Alec Forbes could be so merry. But he had had his evil things, and they were over ; while hers were all about her still. She had but one comfort left 64 Alec Forbes of Howglen. that no one would prevent her from creeping up to her own desolate garret, which was now the dreary substitute for Brownie's stall. Thither the persecuting boys were not likely to follow her. And if the rats were in that garret, so was the cat ; or at least the cat knew the way to it. There she might think in peace about some things about which she had never before seemed to have occa- sion to think. 65 CHAPTER X. THUS at home, if home it could be called, and at school, Annie's days passed as most days pass with family resemblance and individual dif- ference wondrously mingled. She became inte- rested in what she had to learn, if not from the manner in which it was presented to her compre- hension, yet from the fact that she had to learn it. Happily or unhappily, too, she began to get used to the sight of the penal suffering of her schoolfellows. Nor had anything of the kind as yet visited her ; for it would have been hard for even a more savage master than Mr. Malison to find occasion, now that the first disabling influences had passed away, to punish the nervous, delicate, anxious little orphan, who was so diligent, and as quiet as a mouse that fears to awake a sleeping cat. She had a scared look too, that might have moved the heart of Mali- son even, if he had ever paid the least attention to the looks of children. For the absence of human VOL. I. F 66 Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. companionship in bestial forms ; the loss of green fields, free to her as to the winds of heaven, and of country sounds and odours : and an almost constant sense of oppression from the propinquity of one or another whom she had cause to fear, were speedily working sad effects upon her. The little colour she had, died out of her cheek. Her face grew thin, and her blue eyes looked wistful and large out of their sunken cells. Not often were tears to be seen in them now, and yet they looked well ac- quainted with tears like fountains that had been full yesterday. She never smiled, for there was nothing to make her smile. But she gained one thing by this desolation : the thought of her dead father came to her, as it had never come before ; and she began to love him with an intensity she had known nothing of till now. Her mother had died at her birth, and she had been her father's treasure ; but in the last period of his illness she had seen less of him, and the blank left by his death had, therefore, come upon her gradually. Before she knew what it was, she had begun to forget. In the minds of children the grass grows very quickly over their buried dead. But now she learned what death meant, or rather what love had been ; not, however, as an added grief : it comforted her to remember how her father had loved her ; and she said her prayers Alec Forbes of Howglen. 67 the oftener, because they seemed to go somewhere near the place where her father was. She did not think of her father being where God was, but of God being where her father was. The winter was drawing nearer too, and the days were now short and cold. A watery time began, and for many days together, the rain kept falling without intermission. I almost think Annie would have died, but for her dead father to think about. On one of those rainy days, however, she be- gan to find that it is in the nature of good things to come in odd ways. It had rained the whole day, not tamely and drizzingly, but in real earnest, dancing and rebounding from the pools, and rais- ing a mist by the very "crash of water-drops." Now and then the school became silent, just to listen to the wide noise made by the busy cataract of the heavens, each drop a messenger of good, a sweet returning of earth's aspirations, in the form of Heaven's Amen ! But the boys thought only of the fun of dabbling in the torrents as they went home ; or the delights of net-fishing in the swollen and muddy rivers, when the fish no longer see their way, but go wandering about in perplexity, just as we human mortals do in a thick fog, whether of the atmosphere or of circumstance. The afternoon was waning. Tt was nearly time to go ; and still the rain was pouring and plashing F2 68 Alec Forbes of Howylen. around. In the gathering gloom there had been more than the usual amount of wandering from one part of the school to another, and the elder Bruce had stolen to a form occupied by some little boys, next to the one on which Annie sat with her back towards them. If it was not the real object of his expedition, at least he took the oppor- tunity to give Annie a spiteful dig with his elbow ; which, operating even more powerfully than he had intended, forced from her an in- voluntary cry. Now the master indulged in an occasional refinement of the executive, which con- sisted in this : he threw the tawse at the offender, not so much for the sake of hurting although, that, being a not infrequent result, may be supposed to have had a share in the intention as of humiliating ; for the culprit had to bear the instru- ment of torture back to the hands of the execu- tioner. He threw the tawse at Annie, half, let us suppose, in thoughtless cruelty, half in evil jest. It struck her rather sharply, before she had recovered breath after the blow Bruce had given her. Ready to faint with pain and terror, she rose, pale as death, and staggered up to the master, carrying the tawse with something of the same horror she would have felt had it been a snake. With a grim smile, he sent her back to her seat. The moment she reached it, her self-control gave way, Alec Forbes of HOIK glen. 69 and she burst into despairing, though silent tears. The desk was still shaking with her sobs, and some of the girls were still laughing at her grief, when a new occurrence attracted their attention. Through the noise of the falling rain, a still louder rushing of water was heard, and the ears and eyes of all sought the source of the sound. Even Annie turned her wet cheeks and overflowing eyes languidly towards the door. Mr. Malison went and opened it. A flood of brown water was pour- ing into the sunk passage already described. The grating by which the rain-torrent that flowed past the door should have escaped, had got choked, the stream had been dammed back, and in a few moments more the room itself would be flooded. Perceiving this, the master hastily dismissed his pupils. There could be no better fun for most of the boys and some of the girls, than to wade through the dirty water. Many of the boys dashed through it at once, shoes and all ; but some of the boys, and almost all the girls, took off their shoes and stockings. When Annie got a peep of the water, writhing and tumbling in the passage, it looked so ugly, that she shrunk from fording it, especially if she must go in with her bare feet. She could not tell what might be sweeping about in that filthy whirlpool. She was still looking at it as it kept 70 Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. rising, in pale perplexity and dismay, with the for- gotten tears still creeping down her cheeks, Avhen she was caught up from behind by a boy, who, with his shoes and stockings in one hand, now seated her on the other arm. She peeped timidly round to see who it was, and the brave brown eyes of Alec Forbes met hers, lighted by a kind, pitying smile. In that smile the cloudy sky of the universe gently opened, and the face of God looked out upon Annie. It gave her, for the moment, all that she had been dying for want of for many Aveeks weeks long as years. She could not help it she threw her arms round Alec Forbes's neck, laid her wet cheek against his, and sobbed as if her heart would break. She did not care for the Bruces, or the rats, or even the schoolmaster now. Alec clasped her tighter, and vowed in his heart that if ever that brute Malison lifted the tag to her, he would fly at his throat. He would have carried her all the way home, for she was no great weight ; but as soon as they were out of the house, Annie begged him to set her down so earnestly, that he at once complied, and, bidding her good night, ran home barefoot through the flooded roads. The Bruces had gone on with the two umbrellas, one of which, more to her discomfort than protec- tion, Annie had shared in coming to the school ; so that she was very wet before she got home. A lee Forbes of How glen. 1\ But no notice was taken of the condition she was in ; the consequence of which was a severe cold and cough, which, however, were not regarded as any obstacles to her going to school the next day. That night she lay awake for a long time, and when at last she fell asleep, she dreamed that she took Alec Forbes home to see her father out the street and the long road ; over the black moor, and through the fields ; in at the door of the house, and up the stair to her father's room, where he lay in bed. And she told him how kind Alec had been to her, and how happy she was going to be now. And her father put his hand out of the bed, and laid it on Alec's head, and said : *' Thank ye, Alec, for being kind to my poor Annie." And then she eried, and woke crying strange tears out of dream-land, half of delicious sorrow and half of trembling joy. With what altered feelings she seated herself after the prayer, next day, and glanced round the room to catch a glimpse of her new friend ! There he was, radiant as usual. He took no notice of her, and she had not expected that he would. But it was not long before he found out, now that he was interested in her, that her cousins were by no means friendly to her ; for their seats were not far from the girls' quarter, and they took every 72 Alec Forbes of Howglen. sheltered opportunity of giving her a pinch or a shove, or of making vile grimaces at her. In the afternoon, while she was busy over an addition sum which was more than usually obsti- nate, Robert came stealthily behind her, and, lick- ing his hand, watched his opportunity, and rubbed the sum from her slate. The same moment he re- ceived a box on the ear, that no doubt filled his head with more noises than that of the impact. He yelled with rage and pain, and, catching sight of the administrator of justice as he was returning to his seat, bawled out in a tone of fierce com- plaint : " Sanny Forbes !" " Alexander Forbes ! come up," responded the voice of the master. Forbes not being a first-rate scholar, was not a favourite with him, for Mr. Malison had no sense for what was fine in cha- racter or disposition. Had the name been that of one of his better Latin scholars, the cry of Bruce would most likely have passed unheeded. " Hold up your hand," he said, without request- ing or waiting for an explanation. Alec obeyed. Annie gave a smothered shriek, and, tumbling from her seat, rushed up to the master. When she found herself face to face with the tyrant, however, not one word could she speak. She opened her mouth, but throat and tongue refused their offices, and she stood gasping. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 73 The master stared, his arm arrested in act to strike, and his face turned over his left shoulder, with all the blackness of his anger at Forbes lowering upon Annie. He stood thus for one awful mo- ment, then motioning her aside with a sweep of his head, brought down the tawse upon the hand which Alec had continued to hold outstretched, with the vehemence of accumulated wrath. Annie gave a choking cry, and Alec, so violent was the pain, involuntarily withdrew his hand. But instantly, ashamed of his weakness, he presented it again, and received the remainder of his punish- ment without flinching. The master then turned to Annie ; and finding her still speechless, gave her a push that nearly threw her on her face, and said, " Go to your seat, Ann Anderson. The next time you do that, I will punish you severely." Annie sat down, and neither sobbed nor cried. But it was days before she recovered from the shock. Once, long after, when she was reading about the smothering of the princes in the Tower, the whole of the physical sensations of those ter- rible moments returned upon her, and she sprang from her seat in a choking agony. 74 CHAPTER XI. FOR some time, neither of the Bruces ventured even to make a wry face at her in school ; but their behaviour to her at home was only so much the worse. T\vo days after the events recorded, as Annie was leaving the kitchen, after worship, to go up to bed, Mr. Bruce called her. " Annie Anderson," he said, " I want to speak to ye." Annie turned, trembling. " I see ye ken what it's aboot,"he went on, staring her full in the pale face, which grew paler as he stared. " Ye canna luik me i' the face. Whaur 's the candy-sugar an' the prunes'? I ken weel eneuch whaur they are, and sae do ye." " I ken naething aboot them," answered Annie, with a sudden revival of enenrv. CJ "Dinna lee, Annie. It's ill eneuch to steal, withoot leein'." Alec Forbes of How glen. 75 "I'm no leein'," answered she, bursting into tears of indignation. " Wha said 'at I took them?" " That 's naething to the pint. Ye wadna greit that gait gin ye war innocent. I nver missed onything afore. And ye ken weel eneuch there 's an ee that sees a' thing, and ye canna hide frae hit." Bruce could hardly have intended that it was by inspiration from on high that he had discovered the thief of his sweets. But he thought it better to avoid mentioning that the informer was his own son Johnnie. Johnnie, on his part, had thought it better not to mention that he had been incited to the act by his brother -Robert. And Robert had thought it better not to- mention that he did so partly to shield himself, and partly out of revenge for the box on the ear which Alec Forbes had given him. The information had been yielded to the inquisition of the parent, who said with truth that he had never missed anything before ; although I suspect that a course of petty and cautious pilfer- ing had at length passed the narrow bounds within which it could be concealed from the lynx eyes inherited from the kingly general. Possibly a bilious attack, which confined the elder boy to the house for two or three days, may have had some- thing to do with the theft; but if Bruce had any 7G Alec Forbes of How glen. suspicions of the sort, he never gave utterance to them. "I dinna want to hide frae 't," cried Annie. " Guid kens," she went on in desperation, " that I wadna touch a grain o' saut wantin' leave." " It 's a pity, Annie, that some fowk dinna get their ain share o' Mr. Malison's tarcls." (Tards was considered a more dignified word than tag.} " I dinna like to lick ye mysel', 'cause ye 're ither fowk's bairn ; but I can hardly haud my ban's aff o' ye." It must not be supposed from this speech that Eobert Bruce ever ventured to lay his hands on his own children. He was too much afraid of their mother, who, perfectly submissive and sympathetic in ordinary, w r ould have, flown into the rage of a hen with chickens if even her own husband had dared to chastise one of her children. The shop might be more Robert's than hers, but the children were more hers than Robert's. Overcome with shame and righteous anger, Annie burst out in the midst of fresh tears : " I wish Auntie wad come an tak me awa' ! It 's an ill boose to be in." These words had a visible effect upon Bruce. He expected a visit from Marget Anderson within a day or two ; and he did not know what the effect of the representations of Annie might be. The Alec Forbes of Howglen. 77 use of her money had not been secured to him for any lengthened period Dowie, anxious to take all precautions for his little mistress, having consulted a friendly lawyer on the subject, lest she should be left defenceless in the hands of a man of whose moral qualities Dowie had no exalted opinion. The sale having turned out better than had been expected, the sum committed to Bruce was two hundred pounds, to lose which now, would be hardly less than ruin. He thought it better, there- fore, not doubting Annie to be the guilty person, to count the few lumps of sugar he might lose, as an additional trifle of interest, and not quarrel with his creditor for extorting it. So with the weak cunning of his kind, he went to the shop, and bringing back a bit of sugar-candy, about the size of a pigeon's egg, said to the still weeping child : " Dinna greit, Annie. I canna bide to see ye greitin'. Gin ye want a bittie o' sugar ony time, jist tell me, an' dinnagang helpin' yersel'. That's a'. Hae." He thrust the lump into Annie's hand ; but she dropped it on the floor with disgust, and rushed up stairs to her bed as fast as the darkness would let her ; where, notwithstanding her indignation, she was soon fast asleep. Bruce searched for the sugar-candy which 78 Alec Forbes of Howglen. she had rejected, until he found it. He then restored it to the drawer whence he had taken it which he could find in the dark with perfect ease resolving as he did so, to be more care- ful in future of offending little Annie Anderson. When the day arrived upon which he expected Market's visit, that being a Saturday, Bruce was on the watch the w r hole afternoon. From his shop- door he could see all along the street, and a good way beyond it ; and being very quick- sighted, he recognized Marget at a great distance by her shawl, as she sat in a slow-nearing cart. " Annie !" he called, opening the inner door, as he returned behind the counter. Annie, who was up stairs in her own room, im- mediately appeared. "Annie," he said, "rin oot at the back door, and through the yard, and ower to Laurie Lum- ley's, and tell him to come ower to me direckly. Dirma come back withoot him. There 's a guid bairn !" He sent her upon this message, knowing well enough that the man had gone into the country that day, and that there was no one at his house who would be likely to know where he had gone. He hoped, therefore, that she would go and look for him in the town, and so be absent during her aunt's visit. "Weel, Marget/' he said, with his customary Alec Forbes of How glen. 79 greeting, in which the foreign oil sought to over- come the home-bred vinegar, "hoo are ye the day!" " Ow ! nae that ill," answered Marget with a sigh. " And hoo 's Mr. and Mistress Peterson ?" " Brawly. Hoo 's Annie comin' on ?" " Nae that ill. She 's some royt (riotous) jist." He thought to please her by the remark, because she had been in the habit of saying so herself. But distance had made Annie dearer; and her aunt's nose took fire with indignation, as she replied : " The lassie's weel eneuch. / saw naething o' the sort aboot her. Gin ye canna guide her, that's your wyte." Bruce was abashed, but not confounded. He was ready in a moment. " I never kent ony guid come o' bein' ower sair upo' bairns," said he. " She 's as easy guidit as a coo gaein' hame at nicht, only ye maun jist lat her ken that ye 're there, ye ken." " Ow ! ay," said Marget, a little nonplussed in her turn. " Wad ye like to see her f " What ither did I come for 1" " Weel, I s' gang and luik for her." He went to the back door, and called aloud: 80 A lee Forbes of Howglen. " Annie, yer auntie's here and wants to see ye." " She '11 be here in a minute," he said to Marget, as he re-entered the shop. After a little more desultory conversation, he pretended to be surprised that she did not make her appearance, and going once more to the door, called her name several times. He then pretended to search for her in the garden and all over the house, and returned with the news that she was nowhere to be seen. " She 's feared that ye 're come to tak her wi' ye, and she 's run awa oot aboot some gait. I '11 sen' the laddies to luik for her." "Na, na, never min'. Gin she disna want to see me, I 'm sure I needna want to see her. I '11 awa doon the toon," said Margaret, her face grow- ing very red as she spoke. She bustled out of the shop, too angry with Annie to say farewell to Bruce. She had not gone far, however, before Annie came running out of a narrow close, almost into her aunt's arms. But there was no refuge for her there. " Ye little limmer !" cried Margaret, seizing her by the shoulder, " what gart ye rin awa' ? I dinna want ye, ye brat !" " I didna rin awa', Auntie." "Robert Bruce cried on ye to come in, him- sel'." Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. 81 " It was himsel' that sent me to Laurie Lum- ley's to tell him to come till him direckly." Margaret could not make " head or tail" of it. But as Annie had never told her a lie, she could not doubt her. So taking time to think about it, she gave her some rough advice and a smooth penny, and went away on her errands. She was not long in comino; to the conclusion that Bruce wanted to O sunder her and the child; and this offended her so much, that she did not go near the shop for a long time. Thus Annie was forsaken, and Bruce had what he wanted. He needed not have been so full of scheming, though. Annie never said a word to her aunt about their treatment of her. It is one of the marvels in the constitution of children, how much they w r ill bear without complaining. Parents and guardians have no right to suppose that all is well in the nursery or schoolroom, merely from the fact that the children do not complain. Servants and tutors may be cruel, and children will be silent partly, I presume, because they forget so soon. But vengeance of a sort soon overtook Robert Bruce the younger; for the evil-spirit in him, derived from no such remote ancestor as the king, would not allow him a long respite from evil-doing, even in school. He knew Annie better than his father, that she was not likely to complain of any- 82 Alec Forbes of Hoicghn. thing, and that the only danger lay in the chance of being discovered in the deed. One day when the master had left the room to confer with some visitor at the door, he spied Annie in the act of tying her shoe. Perceiving, as he believed, at a glance, that Alec Forbes was totally unobservant, he gave her an ignominious push from behind, which threw her out on her face in the middle of the floor. But Alec did catch sight of him in the very deed, was down upon him in a moment, and, having already proved that a box on the ear was of no lasting effect, gave him a downright good thrashing. He howled vigorously, partly from pain, partly in the hope that the same conse- quences as before would overtake Forbes ; and therefore was still howling when Mr. Malison re- entered. " Robert Bruce, come up," bawled he, the mo- ment he opened the door. And Robert Bruce went up, and notwithstand- ing his protestations, received a second, and far more painful punishment from the master, who perhaps, had been put out of temper by his visitor. But there is no good in speculating on that or any other possibility in the matter ; for, as far at least as the boys could see, the master had no fixed prin- ciple as to the party on whom the punishment should fall. Punishment, in his eyes, was perhaps enough Alec Forbes of How glen. 83 in itself. If he was capable of seeing that punish- ment, as he called it, falling on the wrong person, was not punishment, but only suffering, certainly he had not seen the value of the distinction. If Brace howled before, he howled tenfold now, and went home howling. Annie was sorry for him, and tried to say a word of comfort to him ; but he repelled her advances with hatred and blows. As soon as he reached the shop, he told his father that Forbes had beaten him without his having even spoken to him, which was as correct as it was untrue, and that the master had taken Forbes's part, and licked him over again, of which latter assertion there was proof enough on his per- son. Robert the elder was instantly filled with smouldering wrath, and from that moment hated Alec Forbes. For, like many others of low nature, he had yet some animal affection for his children, combined with an endless amount of partizanship on their behalf, which latter gave him a full right to the national motto of Scotland. Indeed, for nothing in the world but money, would he have sacrificed what seemed to him their interests. A man must learn to love his children, not be- cause they are his, but because they are children, else his love will be scarcely a better thing at last than the party-spirit of the faithful politician. I doubt if it will prove even so good a thing. G2 84 Alec Forbes of Howglen. From this hatred to Alec Forbes came some small consequences at length. But for the present it found no outlet save in sneers and prophetic hints of an " ill hinner en'." 85 CHAPTER XII. IN her inmost heart Annie dedicated herself to the service of Alec Forbes. Nor was it long before she had an opportunity of helping him. One Saturday the master made his appearance in black instead of white stockings, which was re- garded by the scholars as a bad omen ; and fully were their prognostications justified, on this occa- sion, at least. The joy of the half-holiday for Scotch boys and girls has a terrible weight laid in the opposite scale I mean the other half of the day. This weight, which brings the day pretty much on a level with all other days, consists in a free use of the Shorter Catechism. This, of course, made them hate the Catechism, though I am not aware that that was of any great conse- quence, or much to be regretted. For my part, I wish the spiritual engineers who constructed it had, after laying the grandest foundation-stone that truth could afford them, glorified God by 86 Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. going no further. Certainly many a man would have enjoyed Him sooner, if it had not been for their work. But, alas! the Catechism was not enough, even of the kind. The tormentors of O / youth had gone further, and provided what they called Scripture proofs of the various assertions of the Catechism; a support of which it stood greatly in need. Alas ! I say, for the boys and girls who had to learn these proofs, called texts of Scripture, but too frequently only morsels torn bleeding and shapeless from " the lovely form of the Virgin Truth!" For these tasks, combined with the pains and penalties which accompanied failure, taught them to dislike the" Bible as well as the Catechism, and that was a matter of alto- gether different import. Every Saturday, then, Murdoch Malison's pupils had to learn so many questions of the Shorter Catechism, with proofs from Scripture ; and who- ever failed in this task, was condemned to im- prisonment for the remainder of the day, or, at least, till the task should be accomplished. The im- prisonment was sometimes commuted for chastise- ment or finished off with it, when it did not suit the convenience of the master to enforce the full term of a school-day. Upon certain Saturdays, moreover, one in each month, I think, a repetition was required of all the questions and proofs that Alec Forbes of Howglm. 87 had been, or ought to have been, learned since the last observance of the same sort. Now the day in question was one of these of accumulated labour, and Alec Forbes only suc- ceeded in bringing proof of his inability for the task, and was in consequence condemned "to be keepit in" a trial hard enough for one whose chief delights were the open air and the active exertion of every bodily power. Annie caught sight of his mortified countenance, the expression of which, though she had not heard his doom, so filled her with concern and indigna- tion, that her eyes and thoughts fixed upon him, at the other end of the class she did not know when her turn came, but allowed the master to stand before her in bootless expectation. He did not interrupt her, but with a refinement of cruelty that ought to have done him credit in his own eyes, waited till the universal silence had at length aroused Annie to self-consciousness and a sense of annihilating confusion. Then, with a smile on his thin lips, but a lowering thunder-cloud on his brow, he repeated the question : " What doth every sin deserve ?" Annie, bewildered, and burning with shame at finding herself the core of the silence feeling as if her poor little spirit stood there naked to the scoffs and jeers around could not recall a word of 88 Alec Forbes of Howylen. the answer given in the Catechism. So, in her be- wilderment, she fell back on her common sense and experience, which, she ought to have known, had nothing to do with the matter in hand. " What doth every sin deserve ?" again repeated the tyrant. " A lickin'," whimpered Annie, and burst into tears. The master seemed much inclined to consider her condemned out of her own mouth, and give her a whipping at once ; for it argued more than ignorance to answer a whipping, instead of the wrath and curse of God, &c., &c., as plainly set down in the Scotch Targum. But .reflecting, perhaps, that she was a girl, and a little one, and that although it would be more gratification to him to whip her, it might be equal suffering to her to be kept in, he gave that side wave of his head which sealed the culprit's doom, and Annie took her place among the condemned, with a flutter of joy at her heart that Alec Forbes would not be left without a servant to wait upon him. A few more boys made up the unfortunate party, but they were all little ones, and so there was no com- panion for Forbes, who evidently felt the added degradation of being alone. The hour arrived; the school was dismissed ; the master strode out, locking the door behind him ; and the defaulters Alec Forbes of Howglen. 89 were left alone, to shew the bitter cud of ill-cooked Theology. For some time a dreary silence reigned. Alec sat with his elbows on his desk, biting his nails, and gnawing his hands. Annie sat dividing her silent attention between her book and Alec. The other boys were, or seemed to be, busy with their cate- chisms, in the hope of getting out as soon as the master returned. At length Alec took out his knife, and began, for very vacancy, to whittle away at the desk before him. When Annie saw that, she crept across to his form, and sat down on the end of it. Alec looked up at her, smiled, and went on with his whittling. Annie slid a little nearer to him, and asked him to hear her say her catechism. He consented, and she repeated the lesson perfectly. " Now let me hear you, Alec," she said. " Na, thank ye, Annie. I canna say 't. And I wonna say't for a' the dominies in creation." " But he '11 lick ye, Alec ; an' I canna bide it," said Annie, the tears beginning to fill her eyes. " Weel, I '11 try to please you, Annie," said Alec, seeing that the little thing was in earnest. How her heart bounded with delight ! That great boy, so strong and so brave, trying to learn a lesson to please her ! But it would not do. 90 Akc Forbes of Howglen. "I canna min' a word o' 't, Annie. I 'm dreiclfu' hungry, f orbye. I was in a hurry wi' my brakf ast the day. Gin I had kent what was comin', I wad hae laid in a better stock," he added, laughing rather drearily. As he spoke he looked up ; and his eyes wandered from one window to another for a few moments after he had ceased speaking. " Na ; it 's no use," he resumed at last. " I hae eaten ower muckle for that, ony gait." Annie was as pitiful over Alec's hunger as any mother over her child's. She felt it pure injustice that he should ever be hungry. But, unable to devise any help, she could only say, " I dinna ken what ye mean, Alec." " Whan I was na bigger than you, Annie, I could win oot at a less hole than that," answered he, and pointed to the open wooden pane in an upper corner of one of the windows ; " but I hae eaten ower muckle sin syne." And he laughed again ; but it was again an un- successful laugh. Annie sprang to her feet. " Gin ye could win throu that hole ance, I can win throu 't noo, Alec. Jist haucl me up a bit. Ye can lift me, ye ken." And she looked up at him shyly and gratefully. " But what will ye do when ye are oot, Annie T- Alec Forbes of Howglen. 91 " Rin hame, and fess a loaf wi' me direckly." " But Rob Bruce '11 see yer held at ween yer feet, afore he '11 gie ye a loaf, or a mou'f u' o' cakes either ; an' it 's ower far to rin to my mither's. Murdoch wad be back lang or that." " Jist help me oot, an' lea' the lave to me," said Annie, confidently. "Gin I dinna fess a loaf o' white breid, never lippen (trust) to me again." The idea of the bread, always a rarity and con- sequent delicacy to Scotch country boys, so early in the century as the date of my story, was too much for Alec's imagination. He jumped up, and put his head out of one of those open panes to reconnoitre. He saw a woman approaching whom he knew. " I say, Lizzie," he called. The woman stopped. " What 's yer mill, Maister Alec ?" " Jist stan' there an' pu' this lassie oot. We 're a' keepit in thegither, and nearhan' hungert." " The Lord preserve 's ! I '11 gang for the key." " Na, na ; ice wad hae to pay for that. Tak her oot that's a' we want." " He 's a coorse crayter that maister o' yours. I wad gang to see him hangt." " Bide a wee ; that '11 come in guid time," said Alec, pseudo-prophetically. " Weel I s' hae a pu' at the legs o' him, to help 92 Alec Forbes of Howglen. him to jeedgement ; for he '11 be the deith o' ane or twa o' ye afore lang." " Never min' Murder Malison. Will ye tak oot the bit lassie f ' " Od will I ! Whaur is she ?" Alec jumped down and held her up to the open pane, not a foot square. He told her to put her arms through first. Then between them they got her head through, "\vhereupon Lizzie caught hold of her so low was the schoolroom and dragged her out, and set her on her feet. But alas, a win- dow was broken in the process ! "Noo, Annie," cried Alec, "never min' the window. Bin." She was off like a live bullet. She scampered home prepared to encounter all dangers. The worst of them all to her mind was the danger of not succeeding, and of so breaking faith with Alec. She had sixpence of her own in coppers in her box, the only difficulty was to get into the house and out again without being seen. By employing the utmost care and circum- spection, she got in by the back or house-door un- perceived, and so up to her room. In a moment more the six pennies were in her hand, and she in the street ; for she did not use the same amount of precaution in getting out again, not minding discovery so much now, if she could only have a A lee Forbes of Hoivglen. 93 fair start. No one followed her, however. She bolted into a baker's shop. " A saxpenny-loaf," she panted out. "Wha wants it ?" asked the baker's wife. "There's the bawbees," answered Annie, laying them on the counter. The baker's wife gave her the loaf, with the biscuit which, from time immemorial, had always graced a purchase to the amount of sixpence ; and Annie sped back to the school like a runaway horse to his" stable. As she approached, out popped the head of Alec Forbes. He had been listening for the sound of her feet. She held up the loaf as high as she could, and he stretched down as low as he could, and so their hands met on the loaf. " Thank ye, Annie," said Alec with earnestness. " I shanna forget this. Hoo got ye 't ?" "Never ye min' that. I didna steal 't," answered Annie. " But I maun win in again," she added, suddenly awaking to that difficult necessity, and looking up at the window above her head. " I 'm a pre-destined idiot !" said Alec, with an impious allusion to the Shorter Catechism, as he scratched his helpless head. " I never thocht o' that." It was clearly impossible. "Ye '11 catch 't," said one of the urchins to 94 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Annie, with his nose flattened against the window. The roses of Annie's race turned pale, but she answered stoutly, " Weel ! I care as little as the lave o' ye, I 'm thinkin'." By this time the "idiot" had made up his mind. He never could make up any other than a bull- headed mind. " Bin hame, Annie," he said ; " and gin Murder offers to lay a finger o' ye upo' Monday, 1 'II murder him. Faith ! I '11 kill him. Rin hame afore he comes and catches ye at the window." " No, no, Alec," pleaded Annie. "Haud yer tongue," interrupted Alec, "and rin, will ye ?" Seeing he was quite determined, Annie, though loath to leave him, and in terror of what was im- plied in the threats he uttered against the master and might be involved in the execution of them, obeyed him and walked leisurely home, avoiding the quarters in which there was a chance of meeting her gaoler. She found that no one had observed her former visit ; the only remarks made being some goody ones about the disgrace of being kept in. When Mr. Malison returned to the school about four o'clock, he found all quiet as death. The boys appeared totally absorbed in committing the Alec Forbes of Howglen. 95 Shorter Catechism, as if the Shorter Catechism was a sin, which perhaps it was not. But, to his surprise, which he pretended to be considerably greater than it really was, the girl was absent. "Where is Ann Anderson?" were the first words he condescended to utter. " Gane hame," cried two of the little prisoners. " Gone home !" echoed the master in a tone of savage incredulity ; although not only was it plain that she was gone, but he must have known well enough from former experience, how her escape had been effected. " Yes," said Forbes ; " it was me made her go. I put her out at the window. And I broke the win- dow," he added, knowing that it must soon be found out, " but I '11 get it mended on Monday." Malison turned as white as a sheet with venom- ous rage. Indeed, the hopelessness of the situ- ation had made Alec speak with too much non- chalance. Anxious to curry favour, the third youngster now called out, " Sandy Forbes gart her gang an' fess a loaf o' white breid." Of this bread, the wretched informer had still some of the crumbs sticking to his jacket so viti- ating is the influence of a reign of terror. The bread was eaten, and the giver might be betrayed 96 Alec Forbes of Howglen. in the hope of gaining a little favour with the tyrant. "Alexander Forbes, come up." Beyond this point, I will not here prosecute the narrative. Alec bore his punishment with great firmness, although there were few beholders, and none of them worth considering. After he had spent his wrath, the master allowed them all to depart with- out further reference to the Shorter Catechism. 97 CHAPTER XIII. fTVHE Sunday following was anything but a day J- of repose for Annie she looked with such frightful anticipation to the coming Monday. Nor was the assurance with which Alec Forbes had sent her away, and which she was far from for- getting, by any means productive of unmingled consolation ; for in a conflict with such a power of darkness as Mr. Malison, how could Alec, even if sure to be victorious as any knight of old story, come off without injury terrible and not to be con- templated ! Yet, strange to tell or was it really strange ? as she listened to the evening sermon, a sermon quietly and gently enforcing the fate of the ungodly, it was not with exultation at the tardy justice that would overtake such men as Murdoch Malison or Robert Bruce, nor yet with pity for their fate, that she listened ; but with anxious heart-aching fear for her friend, the noble, the generous Alec Forbes, who withstood authority, VOL. T. H 98 Alec Forbes of Howglen. and was therefore in danger of hell- fire. About her own doom, speculation was uninteresting. The awful morning dawned. When she woke, and the thought of what she had to meet came back on her, though it could hardly be said to have been a moment absent all night long, she turned, not metaphorically, but physically sick. Yet break- fast time would come, and worship did not fail to follow, and then to school she must go. There all went on as usual for some time. The bible- class was called up, heard, and dismissed; and Annie was beginning to hope that the whole affair was somehow or other wrapt up and laid by. She had heard nothing of Alec's fate after she had left him imprisoned, and except a certain stoniness in his look, which a single glance discovered, his face gave no sign. She dared not lift her eyes from the spelling-book before her, to look in the direc- tion of the master. Xo murderer could have felt more keenly as if all the universe were one eye, and that eye fixed on him, than Annie. Suddenly the awful voice resounded through the school, and the words it uttered though even after she heard them it seemed too terrible to be true were, " Ann Anderson, come up." For a moment she lost consciousness or at least memory. When she recovered herself, she found Alec Forbes of Howglen. 99 herself standing before the master. His voice seemed to have left two or three unanswered questions somewhere in her head. What they were she had no idea. But presently he spoke again, and, from the tone, what he said was evi- dently the repetition of a question probably put more than once before. " Did you, or did you not, go out at the window on Saturday f She did not see that Alec Forbes had left his seat, and was slowly lessening the distance between them and him. "Yes," she answered, trembling from head to foot. " Did you, or did you not, bring a loaf of bread to those who were kept in ?" " Yes, sir." "Where did you get it?" " I. bought it, sir." " Where did you get the money ?" Of course every eye in the school was fixed upon her, those of her cousins sparkling with delight. " I got it oot o' my ain kist, sir." " Hold up your hand." Annie obeyed, with a most pathetic dumb terror pleading in her face. " Don 't touch her," said Alec Forbes, stepping H2 100 Alec Forbes of How glen. between the executioner and his victim. "You know well enough it was all my fault. I told you so on Saturday." Murder Malison, as the boys called him, turned with the tawse over his shoulder, whence it had been on the point of swooping upon Annie, and answered him with a hissing blow over his down- bent head, followed by a succession of furious blows upon every part of his person, as it twisted and writhed and doubled ; till, making no attempt at resistance, he was knocked down by the storm, and lay prostrate under the fierce lashes, the master holding him down with one foot, and laying on with the whole force of the opposite arm. At length Malison stopped, exhausted, and turn- ing, white with rage, towards Annie, who was almost in a fit with agony, repeated the order : " Hold up your hand." But as he turned Alec bounded to his feet, his face glowing, and his eyes flashing, and getting round in front, sprang at the master's throat, just as the tawse was descending. Malison threw him off, and lifting his weapon once more swept it with a stinging lash round his head and face. Alec, feeling that this was no occasion on which to regard the rules of fair fight, stooped his head, and rushed, like a ram, or a negro, full tilt against the pit of Malison's stomach, and doubling Alec Forbes of How glen. 101 him up, sent him with a crash into the peat fire which was glowing on the hearth. In the attempt to save himself, he thrust his hand right into it, and Alec and Annie were avenged. Alec rushed to drag him off the fire ; but he was up before he reached him. " Go home !" he bawled to the scholars gene- rally, and sat down at his desk to hide his suffer- ing. For one brief moment there was silence. Then a tumult arose, a shouting, and holloing, and screeching, and the whole school rushed to the door, as if the devil had been after them to catch the hindmost. Strange uproar invaded the ears of Glamerton strange, that is, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon of Monday the uproar of jubilant freedom. But the culprits, Annie and Alec, stood and stared at the master, whose face was covered with one hand, while the other hung helpless at his side. Annie stopped partly out of pity for the despot, and partly because Alec stopped. Alec stopped because he was the author of the situation at least he never could give any better reason. At length Mr. Malison lifted his head, and made a movement towards his hat. He started when he saw the two standing there. But the moment he looked at them their courage failed them. '102 Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. " Ein, Annie !" said Alec. Away she bolted, and he after her, as well as he could, which was not with his usual fleetness by any means. When Annie had rounded a corner, not in the master's way home, she stopped, aud looked back for Alec. He was a good many paces behind her ; and then first she discovered the condition of her champion. For now that the excitement was over, he could scarcely walk, and evidence in kind was not wanting that from head to foot he must be one mass of wales and bruises. He put his hand on her shoulder to help him along, and made no opposition to her accompanying him as far as the gate of his mother's garden, which was nearly a mile from the town, on the further bank of one of the rivers watering the valley-plain in which Glamerton had stood for hundreds of years. Then she went slowly home, bearing with her the memory of the smile which, in spite of pain, had illuminated his tawse-waled cheeks, as she took her leave. " Good-bye, dear Alec !" she had said. " Good-bye, Annie dear," he had answered, with the smile ; and she had watched him crawl into the house before she turned awav. AVhen she got home, she saw at once, from the black looks of the Bruce, that the story, whether in its true shape or not, had arrived before her. Alec Forbes of Howglen, 103\ Nothing was said, however, till after worship ; when Bruce gave her a long lecture, as impressive as the creature was capable of making it, on the wickedness and certain punishment of " takin' up wi' ill loons like Sandy Forbes, wha was brakin' his mither's hert wi' his baad behaviour." But he came to the conclusion, as he confided to his wife that night, that the lassie " was growin' hardent already ;" probably from her being in a state of too great excitement from the events of the day to waste a tear upon his lecture ; for, as she said in the hearing of the rottans, when she went up to bed, she " didna care a flee f or' t" But the mo- ment she lay down she fell to weeping bitterly over the sufferings of Alec. She was asleep in a mo- ment after, however. If it had not been for the power of sleeping that there was in the child, she must long before now have given way to the hostile influences around her, and died. There was considerable excitement about the hearths of Glamerton, generally, in consequence of the news of the master's defeat carried home by the children. For, although it was amazing how little of the doings at school the children were in the habit of reporting so little, indeed, that this account involved revelations of the character and proceedings of Mr. Malison which appeared to many of the parents quite incredible the present 104 Alec Forbes of Howglen. occurrence so far surpassed the ordinary, and had excited the beholders so much, that they could not be quiet about it. Various were the judgments elicited by the story. The religious portion of the community seemed to their children to side with the master ; the worldly namely, those who did not profess to be particularly religious all sided with Alec Forbes ; with the exception of a fish- cadger, who had one son, the plague of his life. Amongst the religious, there was, at least, one exception, too ; but he had no children of his own, and had a fancy for Alec Forbes. That exception was Thomas Crann, the stone-mason. 105 CHAPTER XIV. mHOMAS CRANN was building a house ; for he was both contractor in a small way, it is true, not undertaking to do anything without the advance of a good part of the estimate and day- labourer at his own job. Having arrived at the point in the process where the assistance of a carpenter was necessary, he went to George Macwha, whom he found at his bench, planing This bench was in a work-shop, with two or three more benches in it, some deals set up against the wall, a couple of red cart-wheels sent in for repair, and the tools and materials of his trade all about. The floor was covered with shavings, or spates, as they are called by northern consent, which a poor woman was busy gathering into a sack. After a short and gruff greeting on the part of Crann, and a more cordial reply from Macwha, who ceased his labour to attend to his visitor, they entered on the business -question, which having been carefully 106 Alec Forbes of Howglen. and satisfactorily discussed, with the aid of various diagrams upon the half-planed deal, Macwha re- turned to his work, and the conversation took a more general scope, accompanied by the sounds of Macwha's busy instrument. "A terrible laddie, that Sandy Forbes!" said the carpenter, with a sort of laugh in the u-liishk of his plane, as he threw off a splendid spale. " They say he 's lickit the dominie, and 'maist been the deid o' him." " I hae kent waur laddies nor Sandy Forbes," was Thomas's curt reply. " Ow, deed ay ! I ken naething agen the laddie. Him an' oor Willie 's unco throng." To this the sole answer Thomas gave was a grunt, and a silence of a few seconds followed be- fore he spoke, reverting to the point from which they had started. " I 'm no clear but Alec micht hae committed a waur sin than thrashin' the dominie. He 's a dour crater, that Murdoch Malison, wi' his fair face and his picket words. I doot the bairns hae the warst o' 't in general. And for Alec I hae great houpes. He comes o' a guid stock. His father, honest man, was ane o' the Lord's ain, although he didna mak' sic a stan' as, maybe, he ought to hae dune ; and gin his mither has been jist raither saft wi' him, and gi'en him ower lang a tether, Alec Forbes of Howglen. 107 he '11 come a' richt afore lang, for he 's worth luikin efter." " I dinna richtly unnerstan' ye, Thamas." " I dinna think the Lord '11 tyne the grip o' his father's son. He 's no convertit yet, but he 's weel worth converting for there 's guid stuff in him." Thomas did not consider how his common sense was running away with his theology. But Mac- wha was not the man to bring him to book on that score. His only reply lay in the careless icliishk whashk of his plane. Thomas resumed : " He jist wants what ye want, George Macwha." " What 's that Thamas ?" asked George, with a grim attempt at a smile, as if to say: "I know what 's coming, but I 'm not going to mind it." "He jist wants to be weel shaken ower the mou' o' the pit. He maun smell the brunstane o' the everlastin' burnin's. He 's nane o' yer saft buirds, that ye can sleek wi' a sweyp o' yer airm ; he 's a blue whunstane that 's hard to dress, but, anes dressed, it bides the weather bonnie. I like to work upo' hard stane mysel. Nane o' yer saft freestane, 'at ye cud cut wi' a k-nife, for me !" " Weel, I daursay ye 're richt, Thamas." " And, forbye, they say he took a' his ain licks ohn said a word, and flew at the maister only whan he was gaein to lick the puir orphan lassie Jeames Anderson's lassie, ye ken." 108 Alec Forbes of Howglen. " Ow ! ay. It 's the same tale they a' tell. I hae nae doobt it 's correck." " Weel, lat him tak it, than, an' be thankf u' ! for it 's no more than was weel waured (spent) on him." With these conclusive words, Thomas departed. He was no sooner out of the shop, than out started, from behind the deal boards that stood against the wall, Willie, the eldest hope of the house of Macwha, a dusky-skinned, black-eyed, curly-headed, roguish-looking boy, Alec Forbes's companion and occasional accomplice. He was more mischievous than Alec, and sometimes led him into unforeseen scrapes ; but whenever anything extensive had to be executed, Alec was always the leader. " What are ye hidin' for, ye rascal ?" said his father. "What mischeef hae ye been efter noo ?" " Naething by ordinar'," was Willie's cool re- p j y- " What, garred ye hide, than f " Tarn Crann never sets ee upo' me, but he mis- ca's me, an' I dinna like to be misca'd, mair nor ither fowk." " Ye get nae mair nor ye deserve, I doobt," re- turned George. " Here, tak the chisel, and cut that beadin' into len'ths." " I 'm gaein' ower the water to speir efter Alec," was the excusatory rejoinder. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 109 " Ay, ay ! pot and pan ! What ails Alec noo ?" " Mr. Malison 's nearhan' killed him. He hasna been at the schuil this twa days." With, these words Willie bolted from the shop, and set off at full speed. The latter part of his statement was perfectly true. The day after the fight, Mr. Malison came to the school as usual, but with his arm in 'a sling. To Annie's dismay, Alec did not make his appear- ance. It had of course been impossible to conceal his corporal condition from his mother ; and the heart of the widow so yearned over the suffering of her son, though no confession of suffering escaped Alec's lips, that she vowed in anger that he should never cross the door of that school again. For three or four days she held immovably to her re- solution, much to Alec's annoyance, and to the consternation of Mr. Malison, who feared that he had not only lost a pupil, but made an enemy. For Mr. Malison had every reason for being as smooth-faced with the parents as he always was : he had ulterior hopes in Glamerton. The clergy- man was getting old, and Mr. Malison was a licen- tiate of the Church ; and although the people had no direct voice in the filling of the pulpit, it was very desirable that a candidate should have none but friends in the parish. 110 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Mr. Malison made no allusion whatever to the events of Monday, and things went on as usual in the school, with just one exception : for a whole week the tawse did not make its appearance. :. This was owing in part at least to the state of his hand ; but if -he had ever wished to be freed from the necessity of using the lash, he might have derived hope from the fact that somehow or other the boys were during this week no worse than usual. I do not pretend to explain the fact, and beg leave to refer it to occult meteorological influences. As soon as school was over on that first day of Alec's absence, Annie darted off on the road to Howglen, where he lived, and never dropped into a walk till she reached the garden-gate. Fully conscious of the inferiority of her position, she went to the kitchen door. The door was opened to her knock before she had recovered breath enough to speak. The servant, seeing a girl with a shabby dress, and a dirty bonnet from underneath which hung disorderly masses of hair they would have glinted in the eye of the sun, but in the eye of the maid they looked only dusky and disreputable for Annie was not kept so tidy on the interest of her money as she had been at the farm the girl, I say, seeing this, and finding besides, as she thought, that Annie had nothing to say, took her for a beggar, and returning into Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. Ill the kitchen, brought her a piece of oat-cake, the common dole to the young mendicants of the time. Annie's face flushed crimson, but she said gently, having by this time got her runaway breath a little more under control, " No, I thank ye ; I' m no a beggar. I only wanted to ken hoo Alec was the day." " Come in," said the girl, anxious to make some amends for her blunder, " and I'll tell the mis- tress." Annie would gladly have objected, contenting herself with the maid's own account ; but she felt rather than understood that there would be some- thing undignified in refusing to face Alec's mother ; so she followed the maid into the kitchen, and sat down on the edge of a wooden chair, like a perch- ing bird, till she should return. " Please, mem, here 's a lassie wantin' to ken hoo Maister Alec is the day," said Mary, with the handle of the parlour door in her hand. " That must be little Annie Anderson, mamma," said Alec, who was lying on the sofa very com- fortable, considering what he had to lie upon. It may be guessed at once that Scotch was quite discouraged at home. Alec had told his mother all about the affair ; and some of her friends from Glamerton, who likewise had sons at the school, had called and 112 Alec Forbes of Howglen. given their versions of the story, in which the prowess of Alec was made more of than in his own account. Indeed, all his fellow-scholars except the young Bruces, sung his praises aloud ; for, whatever the degree of their affection for Alec, every one of them hated the master a terrible thought for him, if he had been able to appreciate it ; but I do not believe he had any suspicion of the fact that he was the centre of converging thoughts of revengeful dislike. So the mother was proud of her boy far prouder than she was willing for him to see: indeed, she put on the guise of the offended proprieties, as much as she could in his presence, thus making Alec feel like a culprit in hers, which was more than she in- tended, or would have liked, could she have peeped into his mind. So she could not help feeling some interest in Annie, and some curiosity to see her. She had known James Anderson, her father, and he had been her guest more than once when he had called upon business. Everybody had liked him ; and this general approbation was owing to no lack of character, but to his genuine kindness of heart. So Mrs. Forbes was prejudiced in Annie's favour but far more by her own recollections of the father, than by her son's representations of the daughter. " Tell her to come up, Mary," she said. Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. 113 So Annie, with all the disorganization of school about her, was shown, considerably to her dis- comfort, into Mrs. Forbes's dining-room. There was nothing remarkable in the room; but to Annie's eyes it seemed magnificent, for carpet and curtains, sideboard and sofa, were luxuries altogether strange to her eyes. So she entered very timidly, and stood trembling and pale for she rarely blushed except when angry close to the door. But Alec scrambled from the sofa, and taking hold of her by both hands, pulled her up to his mother. " There she is, mamma !" he said. And Mrs. Forbes, although her sense of the fitness of things was not gratified at seeing her so A treat with such familiarity a girl so neglectedly attired, yet received her kindly and shook hands with her. " How do you do, Annie ?" she said. " Quite w T ell, I thank ye, mem," answered Annie, showing in her voice that she was over- awed by the grand lady, yet mistress enough of her manners not to forget a pretty modest courtesy as she spoke. " What 's gaein' on at the school the day, Annie?" asked Alec. "Naething by ordinar," answered Annie, the sweetness of her tones contrasting with the rough- VOL. I. I 114 Alec Forbes of Howglen. ness of the dialect. "The maister' s a hantle quaieter than usual. I fancy he 's a' the better behaved for 's brunt fingers. But, oh, Alec !" And here the little maiden burst into a passion- ate fit of crying. " What 's the matter, Annie," said Mrs. Forbes, as she drew her nearer, genuinely concerned at the child's tears. " Oh ! mem, ye didna see hoo the maister lickit him, or ye wad hae grutten yersel'." Tears from some mysterious source sprang to Mrs. Forbes's eyes. But at the moment Mary opened the door, and said " Here 's Maister Bruce, mem, wantin' to see ye." " Tell him to walk up, Mary." " Oh ! no, no, mem ; dinna lat him come till I 'm out o' this. He '11 tak' me wi' him," cried Annie. Mary stood waiting the result. " But you must go home, you know, Annie," said Mrs. Forbes, kindly. " Ay, but no wi' him" pleaded Annie. From what Mrs. Forbes knew of the manners and character of Bruce, she was not altogether surprised at Annie's reluctance. So, turning to the maid, she said u Have you told Mr. Bruce that Miss Anderson is here f " Alec Forbes of HoicgUn. 115 " Me tell him I No, mem. What 's his busi- ness?" " Mary, you forget yourself." " Weel, mem, I canna bide him." " Hold your tongue, Mary," said her mistress, hardly able to restrain her own amusement, " and take the child into my room till he is gone. But perhaps he knows you are here, Annie ?" " He canna ken that, mem. He jumps at things whiles, though, sharp eneuch." " Well, well ! We shall see." So Mary led Annie away to the sanctuary of Mrs. Forbes's bed-room. But the Bruce was not upon Annie's track at all. His visit wants a few words of explanation. Bruce's father had been a faithful servant to Mr. Forbes's father, who held the same farm be- fore his son, both having been what are called gentlemen-farmers. The younger Bruce, being anxious to set up a shop, had, for his fathers sake, been assisted with money by the elder Forbes. This money he had repaid before the death of the old man, who had never asked any interest for it. More than a few years had not passed, before Bruce, who had a wonderful capacity for petty business, was known to have accumulated some .savings in the bank. Now the younger Forbes, being considerably more enterprising than his i2 116 A lee Forbes of Hoicglen. father, had spent all his capital upon improve- ments draining, fencing, and such like when a younger brother, to whom he was greatly attached, applied to him for help in an emergency, and he had nothing of his own within his reach wherewith to aid him. In this difficulty he bethought him of Bruce, to borrow from whom would not involve the exposure of the fact that he was in any embar- rassment, however temporary an exposure very undesirable in a country town like Glamerton. After a thorough investigation of the solvency of Mr. Forbes, and a proper delay for consideration besides, Bruce supplied him with a hundred pounds upon personal bond, at the usual rate of interest, for a certain term of years. Mr. Forbes died soon after, leaving his affairs in some embarrassment in consequence of his outlay. Mrs. Forbes had paid the interest of the debt now for two years ; but, as the rent of the farm was heavy, she found this ad- ditional trifle a burden. She had good reason, however, to hope for better times, as the farm must soon increase its yield. Mr. Bruce, on his part, regarded the widow with somewhat jealous eyes, because he very much doubted whether, when the day arrived, she would be able to pay him the money she owed him. That day was, however, not just at hand. It was this diversion of his resources, and not the moral necessity for a nest- Alec Forbes of Howglen. 117 egg, as he had represented the case to Margaret Anderson, which had urged him to show hospitality to Annie Anderson and her little fortune. So neither was it anxiety for the welfare of Alec that induced him to call on Mrs. Forbes. Indeed if Malison had killed him outright, he would have been rather pleased than otherwise. But he was in the habit of reminding the widow of his existence by an occasional call, especially when the time ap- proached for the half-yearly payment of the in- terest. And now the report of Alec's condition gave him a suitable pretext for looking in upon his debtor, without, as he thought, appearing too greedy after his money. " Weel, mem, hoo are ye the day V said he, as he entered, rubbing his hands. " Quite well, thank you, Mr. Bruce. Take a seat." " An' hoo 's Mr. Alec t" " There he is to answer for himself," said Mrs. Forbes, looking towards the sofa. " Hoo are ye, Mr. Alec, efter a' this ?" said Bruce, turning towards him. " Quite well, thank you," answered Alec, in a tone that did not altogether please either of the lis- teners. " I thocht ye had been raither sair, sir," returned Bruce, in an acid tone. 118 Alec Forbes of Howglen. " I Ve got a wale or two, that 's all," said Alec. " Weel, I houp it '11 be a lesson to ye." "To Mr. 'Malison, you should have said, Mr. Bruce. I am perfectly satisfied, for my part." His mother was surprised to hear him speak like a grown man, as well as annoyed at his be- haviour to Bruce, in whose power she feared they might one day find themselves to their cost. But she said nothing. Bruce, likewise, was rather non- plussed. He grinned a smile and was silent. " I hear you have taken James Anderson's daughter into your family now, Mr. Bruce." "Ow, ay, mem. There was nobody to luik efter the bit lassie ; sae, though I cud but ill affoord it, wi' my ain sma' faultily comiu' up, I was jist in a mainner obleeged to tak' her, Jeames Anderson bein' a cousin, o' my ain, ye ken, mem." " Well, I am sure it was very kind of you and Mrs. Bruce. How does the child get on ?" " Middlin', mem, middlin'. She 's jist some ill for takin' up wi' loons." Here he glanced at Alec, with an expression of successful spite. He certainly had the best of it now. Alec was on the point of exclaiming " That 's a lie," but he had prudence enough to restrain him- self, perceiving that the contradiction would have a better chance with his mother if he delayed its A lee 'Forbes of Hoivglen. 119 utterance till after the departure of Bruce. So, meantime, the subject was not pursued. A little desultory conversation followed, and the visitor departed, with a laugh from between his teeth as he took leave of Alec, which I can only describe as embodying an I told you so sort of satisfac- tion. Almost as soon as he was out of the house, the parlour-door opened, and Mary brought in Annie. Mrs. Forbes's eyes were instantly fixed on her with mild astonishment, and something of a mother's tenderness awoke in her heart towards the little maid-child. What would she not have given for such a daughter ! During Bruce's call, Mary had been busy with the child. She 'had combed and brushed her thick brown hair, and, taken with its exceeding beauty, had ventured on a stroke of originality no one would have expected of her : she had left it hanging loose on her shoulders. Any one would think such an impropriety impossi- ble to a Scotchwoman. But then she had been handling the hair, and contact with anything alters so much one's theories about it. If Mary had found it so, instead of making it so, she would have said it was " no dacent." But the hair gave her its own theory before she had done with it, and this was the result. She had also washed her face and hands and neck, made the best she could of her 120 Alec Forbes of Howglen. poor, dingy dress, and put one of her own Sunday collars upon her. Annie had submitted to it all without question ; and thus adorned, Mary introduced her again to the dining-room. Before Mrs. Forbes had time to discover that she was shocked, she was captivated by the pale, patient, face, and the longing blue eyes, that looked at her as if the child felt that she ought to have been her mother, but somehow they had missed each other. They gazed out of the shadows of the mass of dark brown wavy hair that fell to her waist, and there was no more any need for Alec to contradict Bruce's calumny. But Mrs. Forbes was speedily recalled to a sense of propriety by observing that Alec too was staring at Annie with a mingling of amusement, admiration, and respect. " What have you been about, Mary ?" she said, in a tone of attempted reproof. " You have made a perfect fright of the child. Take her away." When Annie was once more brought back, with her hair restored to its net, silent tears of mortifi- cation were still flowing down her cheeks. When Annie cried, the tears always rose and flowed with- out any sound or convulsion. Rarely did she sob even. This completed the conquest of Mrs.Forbes's heart. She drew the little one to her, and kissed Alec Forbes of How glen. 121 her, and Annie's tears instantly ceased to rise, while Airs. Forbes wiped away those still lingering on her face. Alary then went to get the tea, and Airs. Forbes having left the room for a moment to recover that self-possession, the loss of which is peculiarly objectionable to a Scotchwoman, Annie was left seated on a footstool before the bright fire, the shadows from which were now dancing about the darkening room, and Alec lay on the sofa looking at her. There was no great occasion for his lying on the sofa, but his mother desired it, and Alec had at present no particular objection. " I wadna like to be gran' f owk," mused Annie aloud, forgetting that she was not alone. " We 're no gran' fowk, Annie," said Alec. " Ay are ye," returned Annie, persistently. " Weel, what for wadna ye like it ?" " Ye maun be aye feared for blaudin' things." 11 Alamma wad tell ye a different story," rejoined Alec laughing. " There 's naething here to blaud (spoil): 1 Airs. Forbes returned. Tea was brought in. Annie comported herself like a lady, and, after tea, ran home with mingled feelings of pleasure and pain. For, notwithstanding her assertion that she would not like to be " gran' fowk," the kitchen fire, small and dull, the smelling shop, and her own dreary garret-room, did not seem more desirable 122 Alec Forbes of Howglen . from her peep into the warmth and comfort of the house at Howglen. Questioned as to what had delayed her return from school, she told the truth ; that she had gone to ask after Alec Forbes, and that they had kept her to tea. " I tauld them that ye ran efter the loons !" said Bruce triumphantly. Then stung with the reflec- tion that lie had not been asked to stay to tea, he added : " It 's no for the likes o' you, Annie, to gang to gentlefowk's hooses, makin' free whaur ye 're no wantit. Sae dinna lat me hear the like again." But it was wonderful how Bruce's influence over Annie, an influence of distress, was growing gradually weaker. He could make her uncomfort- able enough ; but as to his opinion of her, she had almost reached the point of not caring a straw for that. And she had faith enough in Alec to hope that he would defend her from whatever Bruce might have said against her. Whether Mary had been talking in the town, as is not improbable, about little Annie Ander- son's visit to her mistress, and so the story of the hair came to be known, or not, I cannot tell ; but it was a notable coincidence that a few days after, Mrs. Bruce came to the back-door, with a great pair of shears in her hand, and calling Annie, said : Alec Forbes of Hoivglen. 123 " Here, Annie ! Yer hair 's ower lang. I maun jist clip it. It 's giein y e sair een." " There 's naething the maitter wi' my een," said Annie gently. " Dinna answer back. Sit doon," returned Mrs. Bruce, leading her into the kitchen. Annie cared very little for her hair, and well enough remembered that Mrs. Forbes had said it made a fright of her ; so it was with no great re- luctance that she submitted to the operation. Mrs. Bruce chopped it short off all round. As, however, this permitted what there was of it to fall about her face, there being too little to confine in the usual prison of the net, her appearance did not bear such marks of deprivation, or, in other and Scotch words, "she didna luik sae dockit," as might have been expected. Her wavy locks of rich brown were borne that night, by the careful hand of Mrs. Bruce, to Rob Guddle, the barber. Nor was the hand less care- ful that brought back their equivalent in money. With a smile to her husband, half loving and half cunning, Mrs. Bruce dropped the amount into the till. 124 CHAPTER XV. A LTHOUGH Alec Forbes was not a boy of IjL quick receptivity as far as books were con- cerned, and therefore was no favourite with Mr. Malison, he was not by any means a common or a stupid boy. His own eyes could teach him more than books could, for he had a very quick observa- tion of things about him, both in what is commonly called nature and in humanity. He knew all the birds, all their habits, and all their eggs. Not a boy in Glamerton could find a nest quicker than he, or when found treated it with such respect. For he never took young birds, and seldom more than half of the eggs. Indeed he was rather an uncommon boy, having, along with more' than the usual amount of activity even for a boy, a tenderness of heart altogether rare in boys. He was as familiar with the domestic animals and their ways of feeling and acting as Annie herself. Anything like cruelty he detested ; and yet, as oc- Alec Forces of Howglen. 125 casion will show, he could execute stern -justice. With the world of men around him, he was equally conversant. He knew the characters of the simple people wonderfully well; and took to Thomas Crann more than to any one else, nothwithstand- ing that Thomas would read him a long lecture sometimes. To these lectures Alec would listen seriously enough, believing Thomas to be right ; though he could never make up his mind to give any after attention to what he required of him. The first time Alec met Thomas after the affair with the dominie, was on the day before he was to go back to school ; for his mother had yielded at last to his entreaties. Thomas was building an addi- tion to a watermill on the banks of the Glamour not far from where Alec lived, and Alec had strolled along thither to see how the structure was going on. He expected a sharp rebuke for his behaviour to Mr. Malison, but somehow he was not afraid of Thomas, and was resolved to face it out. The first words Thomas uttered, however, were : " Weel, Alec, can ye tell me what was the name o' King Dawvid's mither ?" " I cannot, Thomas," answered Alec. " What was it?" " Fin' ye that oot. Turn ower yer bible. Hae ye been back to the school yet ?" 126 Alec Forbes of Howglen. " No. I 'm gaein the morn." " Ye 're no gaein to strive wi' the maister afore nicht, are ye ?" " I dinna ken," answered Alec. " Maybe he '11 strive wi' me. But ye ken, Thomas," he continued, defending himself from what he supposed Thomas was thinking, " King Dawvid hirnseP killed the giant." " Ow 1 ay ; a' richt. I 'm no referrin' to that. Maybe ye did verra richt. But tak care, Alec " here Thomas paused from his work, and turning towards the boy with a trowelful of mortar in his hand, spoke very slowly and solemnly "tak ye care that ye beir no malice against the maister. Justice itsel', dune for the sake o' a private grudge, will bunce back upo' the doer. I hae little doobt the maister '11 be the better for 't ; but gin ye be the waur, it '11 be an ill job, Alec, my man." " I hae no ill-will at him, Thomas." " Weel, jist watch yer ain hert, and bewaur ye o' that. I wad coonsel ye to try and please him a grainie mair nor ordinar'. It 's no that easy to the carnal man, but ye ken we ought to crucify the auld man, wi' his affections and lusts." " Weel, I '11 try," said Alec, to whom it was not nearly so difficult as Thomas imagined. His man apparently was not very old yet. And he did try ; and the master seemed to ap- Alec Forbes of Howglen. 127 predate his endeavours, and to accept them as a peace-offering, thus showing that he really was the better for the punishment he had received. It would be great injustice to Mr. Malison to judge him by the feeling of the present day. It was the custom of the time and of the country to use the tawse unsparingly; for law having been, and still, in a great measure, being, the highest idea gene- rated of the divine by the ordinary Scotch mind, it must be supported, at all risks even, by means of the leather strap. In the hands of a wise and even-tempered man, no harm could result from the use of this instrument of justice ; but in the hands of a fierce-tempered, and therefore change- able man, of small moral stature, and liable to pre- judices and offence, it became the means of un- speakable injury to those under his care ; not the least of which was the production, in delicate natures, of doubt and hesitancy, sometimes deepen- ing into cowardice and lying. Mr. Malison had nothing of the childlike in himself, and consequently never saw the mind of the child whose person he was assailing with a battery of excruciating blows. A man ought to be able to endure grief suffering wrongfully, and be none the worse ; but who dares demand that of a child 1 Well it is for such masters that even they are judged by the heart of a father, and not 128 A lee Forbes of Howglen. by the law of a king, that worst of all the fictions of an ignorant and low theology. And if they must receive punishment, at least it will not be the heartless punishment which they inflicted on the boys and girls under their law. Annie began to be regarded as a protegee of Alec Forbes, and as Alec was a favourite with most of his schoolfellows, and was feared where he was not loved, even her cousins began to look upon her with something like respect, and mitigate their persecutions. But she did not therefore be- come much more reconciled to her position; for the habits and customs of her home were distasteful to her, and its whole atmosphere uncongenial. Nor could it have been otherwise in any house where the entire anxiety was first, to make money, and next, not to spend it. The heads did not in the least know that they were unkind to her. On the contrary, Bruce thought himself a pattern of generosity, if he gave her a scrap of string ; and Mrs. Bruce, when she said to inquiring gossips "The bairn 's like ither bairns she 's weel eneuch," thought herself a pattern of justice or even of for- bearance. But both were jealous of her, in relation to their own children ; and when Mrs. Forbes sent for her one Saturday, soon after her first visit, they hardly concealed their annoyance at the pre- ference shown her by one who was under such Alec Forbes of Howglen. 129 ^reat obligation to the parents of other children every way superior to her whose very presence somehow or other made them uncomfortable. VOL. I. K 130 CHAPTER XVI. THE winter drew on a season as different from the summer in those northern latitudes, as if it belonged to another solar system. Cold and stormy, it is yet full of delight for all beings that can either romp, sleep, or think it through. But alas for the old and sickly, in poor homes, with scanty food and firing ! Little children suffer too, though the gift of f orgetf ulness does for them what the gift of faith does for their parents helps them over many troubles, besides tingling fingers and stony feet. There would be many tracks of those small feet in the morning snow, leading away across the fresh- fallen clouds from the house and cottage doors; for the barbarity of morning-school, that is, an hour and a half of dreary lessons before breakfast, was iii full operation at Glamerton. The winter came. One morning, all the children awoke, and saw a white world around them. Alec jumped out of bed in delight. It was a sunny, Alec Forbes of Howglen. 131 frosty morning. The snow had fallen all night, with its own silence, and no wind had interfered with the gracious alighting of the feathery water. Every branch, every twig, was laden with its sparkling burden of down-flickered flakes, and threw long lovely shadows on the smooth feature- less dazzle below. Away, away, stretched the outspread glory, the only darkness in it being the line of the winding river. All the snow that fell on it vanished, as death and hell shall one day vanish in the fire of God. It flowed on, black through its banks of white. Away again stretched the shine to the town, where every roof had the sheet that was let down from heaven spread over it, and the streets lay a foot deep in yet unsullied snow, soon, like the story of the ages, to be trampled, soiled, wrought, and driven with human feet, till, at last, God's strong sun would wipe it all away. From the door opening into this fairy-land, Alec sprang into the untrodden space, as into a new America. He had discovered a world, with- out even the print of human foot upon it. The keen air made him happy ; and the face of nature, looking as peaceful as the face of a dead man dreaming of heaven, wrought in him jubilation and leaping. He was at the school door before a human being had appeared in the streets of Glamerton. Its dwellers all lay still under those sheets of K 2 132 Alec Forbes of Howglen. snow, which seemed to hold them asleep in its cold enchantment. Before any of his fellows made their appear- ance, he had kneaded and piled a great heap of snowballs, and stood by his pyramid, prepared for the offensive. He attacked the first that came, and soon there was a troop of boys pelting away at him. But with his store of balls at his foot, he was able to pay pretty fairly for what he received ; till, that being exhausted, he was forced to yield the unequal combat. By and by the little ones gathered with Annie amongst them ; but they kept aloof, for fear of the flying balls, for the boys had divided into two equal parties, and were pelting away at each other. At length the woman who had charge of the school-room, having finished lighting the fire, opened the door, and Annie, who was very cold, made a run for it, during a lull in the fury of the battle. " Stop," cried Alec ; and the balling ceased, that Annie, followed by a few others, might pass in safety through the midst of the combatants. One boy, however, just as Annie was entering, threw a ball after her. He missed her, but Alec did not miss him ; for scarcely was the ball out of his hand, when he received another, right between his eyes. Over he went, amidst a shout of satisfaction. When the master appeared at the top of the Alec Forbes of Howcjlm. 133 lane, the fight came to a close ; and as he entered the school, the group round the fire broke up and dispersed. Alec, having entered close behind the master, overtook Annie as she went to her seat, for he had observed, as she ran into the school, that she was lame indeed limping considerably. "What's the maitter wi' ye, Annie?" he said. " What gars ye hirple ?" " Juno bitet me," answered Annie. " Ay ! Verra weel !" returned Alec, in a tone that had more meaning than the words. Soon after the Bible-class was over, and they had all taken their seats, a strange quiet stir and excitement gradually arose, like the first motions of a whirlpool at the turn of the tide. The master became aware of more than the usual flitting to and fro amongst the boys, just like the coming and going which preludes the swarming of bees. But as he had little or no constructive power, he never saw beyond the symptoms. They were to him mere isolated facts, signifying present disorder. " John Morison, go to your seat," he cried. John went. " Robert Eennie, go to your seat." Robert went. And this continued till, six having been thus passed by, and a seventh appearing three forms from his own, the master, who seldom stood it so long, could stand it no longer. The tag was 134 Alec Forbes of Howglen. thrown, and a licking followed, making matters a little better from the master's point of view. Now I will try to give, from the scholars' side, a peep of what passed. As soon as he was fairly seated, Alec said in a low voice across the double desk to one of the boys opposite, calling him by his nickname, " I say, Divot, do ye ken Juno ?" "Maybe no!" answered Divot. "But gin I dinna, my left leg dis." " I thocht ye kent the shape o' her teeth, man. Jist gie Scrumpie there a dig i' the ribs." " What are ye ef ter, Divot ? I '11 gie ye a cloot o' the lug," growled Scrumpie. " Hoot man ! The General wants ye." TJie General was. Alec's nickname. " What is 't, General?" "Do ye ken Juno?" " Hang the bitch ! I ken her ower weel. She took her denner aff o' ane o' my hips, ae day last year." " Jist creep ower to Cadger there, and speir gin he kens Juno. Maybe he 's forgotten her." Cadger's reply was interrupted by the inter- ference of the master, but a pantomimic gesture conveyed to the General sufficient assurance of the retentiveness of Cadger's memory in regard to Juno and her favours. Such messages and replies, A lee Forbes of Howglen. 135 notwithstanding more than one licking, kept pass- ing the whole of the morning. Now Juno was an animal of the dog kind, be- longing to Robert Bruce. She had the nose and the legs of a bull-dog, but was not by any means thorough-bred, and her behaviour was worse than her breed. She was a great favourite with her master, who ostensibly kept her chained in his back-yard for the protection of his house and property. But she was not by any means popular with the rising generation. For she was given to biting, with or without provocation, and every now and then she got loose upon sundry of which occasions, she had bitten boys. Complaint had been made to her owner, but without avail ; for he only pro- fessed great concern, and promised she should not get loose again, which promise had been repeatedly broken. Various vows of vengeance had been made, and forgotten. But now Alec Forbes had taken up the cause of humanity and justice ; for the brute had bitten Annie, and she could have given no provocation. It was soon understood throughout the school that war was to be made upon Juno, and that every able-bodied boy must be ready when called out by the General. The minute they were dis- missed, which, at this season of the year, took place at three o'clock, no interval being given for 136 Alec Forbes of How glen. dinner, because there was hardly any afternoon, the boys gathered in a knot at the door. " What are ye gaein' to do, General ?" asked one. " Kill her," answered Alec. " What way?" " Stane her to death, loons, like the man 'at brak the Sabbath." "Broken banes for broken skins eh? Ay !" " The damned ill-faured brute, to bite Annie Anderson !" " But there 's nae stanes to be gotten i' the snaw, General," said Cadger. " Ye gomeril! Ye '11 get mair stanes nor ye '11 carry, I doobt, up o' the side o' the toll-road yonner. Naething like road-metal !" A confused chorus of suggestions and exclama- tions now arose, in the midst of which Willie Macwha, whose cognomen was Curly-pow, came up. He was not often the last in a conspiracy. His arrival had for the moment a sedative effect. " Here 's Curly ! Here 's Curly !" " Weel, is 't a' sattled?" asked he. " She 's condemned, but no execute yet," said Grumpie. " Hoo are we to win at her ?" asked Cadger. " That 's jist the pint," said Divot. " We canna weel kill her in her ain yard," sug- gested Houghie. Alec Forbes of Hoivglen. 137 "Na. We maun bide our time, an' tak her when she 's oot aboot," said the General. " But wha 's to ken that? an' hoo are we to gather?" asked Cadger, who seemed both of a prac- tical and a despondent turn of mind. "Noo, jist haud yer tongues, an' hearken to me," said Alec. The excited assembly was instantly silent. " The first thing," began Alec, " is to store plenty o' ammunition." " Ay, ay, General." " Haud yer tongues. Whaur had we best stow the stanes, Curly?" " In oor yard. They '11 never be noticed there." " That '11 do. Some time the nicht, ye '11 a' carry what stanes ye can get an' min' they 're o' a serviceable natur' to Curly's yard. He '11 be o' the ootluik for ye. An', I say, Curly, doesna your riggin-stane owerluik the maist o' the toon?" " Ay, General." "Ye can see our hoose frae 't canna ye?" "Ay." "Weel, ye jist buy a twa three blue lichts. Hae ye ony bawbees ?" " Deil ane, General." " Hae than, there 's fower an' a bawbee for . expenses o' the war." -"Thank ye, General." 138 Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. " Ye hae an auld gun, haena' ye?" "Ay have I; but she's nearhan' the rivin'." " Load her to the mou', and lat her rive. We '11 may be hear 't. But haud weel oot ower f rae her. Ye can lay a train, ye ken." " Is' tak care o' that, General." " Scrumpie, ye bide no that far frae the draigon's den. Ye jist keep yer ee nae the crookit ane upo' her ootgoins an' incomins; or raither, ye luik efter her comin oot, an' we '11 a' luik efter her gaein in again. Jist raak a regiment o' yer ain to watch her, and bring ye word o' her proceedins. Ye can easy luik roun the neuk o' the back-yett, an' nobody be a hair the wiser. As sune as ever ye spy her lowse i' the yard, be aff wi' ye to Willie Macwha. Syne, Curly, ye fire yer gun, and burn the blue lichts o' the tap o' the hoose ; and gin I see or hear the signal, I '11 be ower in seven minutes an' a half. Ilka ane o' ye 'at hears, maun luik efter the neist; and sae we'll a'gether atCurly's. Fess yer bags for the stanes, them 'at has bags." " But gin ye dinna see or hear, for it 's a lang road, General?" interposed Cadger. " Gin I 'm no at your yard, Curly, in saiven minutes an' a half, sen' Linkum efter me. He 's the only ane o' ye 'at can rin. It 's a' that he can do, but he does 't weel. Whan Juno 's aiice oot, she 's no in a hurry in again." Alec Forbes of Howglen. 139 The boys separated and went home in a state of excitement, which probably, however, interfered very little with their appetites, seeing it was moderated in the meantime by the need and anticipation of their dinners. The sun set now between two and three o'clock, and there were long forenights to favour the plot. Perhaps their hatred of the dog would not have driven them to such extreme measures, even although she had bitten Annie Anderson, had her master been a favourite, or even generally re- spected. But Alec knew well enough that the townsfolk were not likely to sympathize with Bruce on the ill-treatment of his cur. "When the dinner and the blazing fire had filled him so full of comfort that he was once more ready to encounter the cold, Alec could stay in the house no longer. " Where are you going, Alec 1" said his mother. " Into the garden, mamma." "What can you want in the garden full of snow !" " It 's just the snow I want^ mamma. It won 't keep." And, in another moment, he was under the clear blue night-heaven, with the keen frosty air blow- ing on his warm cheek, busy with a wheelbarrow and a spade, slicing and shovelling in the snow. 140 Alec Forbes of Howglen. He was building a hut of it, after the fashion of the Esquimaux hut, with a very thick circular wall, which began to lean towards its own centre as soon as it began to rise. This hut he had pitched at the foot of a flag-staff on the green lawn would be too grand a word for the hun- dred square feet in front of his mother's house, though the grass which lay beneath the snowy carpet was very green and lovely grass, smooth enough for any lawn. In summer Alec had quite revelled in its greenness and softness, as he lay on it reading the Arabian Nights and the Ettrick Shepherd's stories : now it was rt white with the whiteness of what is dead ;" for is not the snow just dead water ? The flag-staff he had got George Macwha to erect for him, at a very small outlay ; and he had himself fitted it with shrouds and a cross-yard, and signal halliards ; for he had always a fancy for the sea, and boats, and rigging of all sorts. And he had a great red flag, too, which he used to hoist on special occasions on market-days and such like ; and often besides when a good wind blew. And very grand it looked, as it floated in the tide of the wind. Often he paused in his work, and turned and oftener without raising himself he glanced towards the town ; but no signal burned from the ridge of Curly's house, and he went on with his Alec Forbes of Howglen. 141 labour. When called in to tea, he gave a long wistful look townwards, but saw no sign. Out again he went, but no blue fire rejoiced him that night with the news that Juno was ranging the streets ; and he was forced to go to bed at last, and take refuge from his disappointment in sleep. The next day he strictly questioned all his officers as to the manner in which they had fulfilled their duty, and found no just cause of complaint. "In future," he said to Curly, with the im- portance of one who had the affairs of boys and dogs upon his brain so that his style rose into English "in future, Curly, you may always know I am at home when you see the red flag flying from my flag-staff." "That's o' sma' service, General, i' the lang forenichts. A body canna see freely so far." " But Linkum wad see 't fleein', lang or he wan to the yett (gate)" " It wad flee nae mair nor a deid deuke, i' this weather. It wad be frozen as stiff 's a buird." " Ye gowk ! Do ye think f owk wash their flags afore they hing them oot, like sarks or sheets! Dinna ye be ower clever, Curly, my man." Whereupon Curly shut up. 142 Alec Forbes of Howglen. " What are you in such a state about, Alec ?" asked his mother. "Nothing very particular, mamma," answered Alec, ashamed of his want of self-command. " You 've looked out at the window twenty times in the last half-hour," she persisted. "Curly promised to burn a blue light, and I wanted to see if I could see it." Suspecting more, his mother was forced to be content with this answer. But that night also passed without sight or sound. Juno kept safe in her barrel, little think- ing of the machinations against her in the wide snow-covered country around. Alec finished the Esquimaux hut, and the snow falling all night, the hut looked the next morning as if it had been there all the winter. As it seemed likely that a long spell of white weather had set in, Alec resolved to extend his original plan, and carry a long snow passage, or covered vault, from the lattice-window of a small closet, almost on a level with the ground, to this retreat by the flag-staff. He was hard at work in the execution of this project, on the third night, or rather late afternoon : they called it fore- night there. 143 CHAPTER XVII. " "ITTHAT can that be, mem, awa ower the toon I f there ?" said Mary to her mistress, as in passing she peeped out of the window, the blind of which Alec had drawn up behind the curtain. "What is it, Mary?" " That 's jist what I dinna ken, mem. It canna be the rory-bories, as Alec ca's them. It 's ower blue. It 's oot. It 's in agin. It 's no canny. And, preserves a' ! it 's crackin' as weel," cried Mary, as the subdued sound of a far-off explosion reached her. This was of course no other than the roar of Curly's gun in the act of bursting and vanishing ; for neither stock, lock, nor barrel was ever seen again. It left the world like a Xorse king on his fire-ship. But, at the moment, Alec was too busy in the depths of his snow-vault, to hear or see the signals. By and by a knock came to the kitchen door. Mary went and opened it. 144 A lee Forbes of Howglen. " Alec 's at hame, I ken," said a rosy boy, al- most breathless with past speed and present excite- ment. " Hoo ken ye that, my man T asked Mary. " 'Cause the flag 's fleein'. Whaur is he ?" " Gin ye ken sae muckle aboot him already, ye can jist fin' him to yersel' !" " The bick 's oot !" panted Linkum. But Mary shut the door. " Here 's a job !" said Linkum to himself. " I canna gang throu a steekit door. And there's Juno wi' the rin o' the haill toun. Deil tak her !" But at the moment he heard Alec whistling a favourite tune, as he shovelled away at the snow. " General !" cried Linkum, in ecstasy. "Here!" answered Alec, flinging his spade twenty feet from him, and bolting in the direc- tion of the call. " Is 't you, Linkum ?" " She 's oot, General." " Deil hae her, gin ever she wins in again, the curst worryin' brute ! Did ye gang to Curly ?" " Ay did I. He fired the gun, and brunt three blue lichts, and waited seven minutes and a half ; and syne he sent me for ye, General." " Confoon' 't," cried Alec, and tore through shrubbery and hedge, the nearest way to the road, followed by Linkum, who even at full speed was not a match for Alec. Away they flew like the Alec Forbes of Howglen. 145 wind, along the well-beaten path to the town, over the footbridge that crossed the Glamour, and full speed up the hill to Willie Macwha, who, with a dozen or fifteen more, was anxiously waiting for the commander. They all had their book-bags, pockets, and arms filled with stones lately broken for mending the turnpike road, mostly granite, but partly whinstone and flint. One bag was ready filled for Alec. " Noo," said the General, in the tone of Gideon of old, " gin ony o' ye be fleyt at the brute, jist gang hame." Ay ! ay ! General." But nobody stirred, for those who were afraid had slunk away the moment they saw Alec coming up the hill, like the avenger of blood. "Wha's watchin' her ?" " Doddles, Gapy, and Goat." " Whaur was she last seen ?" " Takin' up wi' anither tyke on the squaure." " Doddles '11 be at the pump, to tell whaur 's the ither twa and the tyke." " Come along, then. This is hoo ye 're to gang. We maunna a' gang thegither. Some o' ye you three doon the Back Wynd ; you sax, up Lucky Hunter's Close ; and the lave by Gowan Street ; an' first at the pump bides for the lave." " Hoo are we to mak the attack, General ?" VOL. J. L \ 146 Alec Forbes of How glen. " I '11 gie my orders as the case may demand," said Alec. And away they shot. The muffled sounds of the feet of the various companies as they thundered past upon the snow, roused the old wives dozing over their knitting by their fires of spent oak-bark ; and according to her temper would be the remark with which each startled dame turned again to her former busy qui- escence : " Some mischeef o' the loons !" " Some ploy o' the laddies !" " Some deevilry o' thae rascals frae Malison's school !" They reached the square almost together, and found Doddles at the pump ; who reported that Juno had gone down the inn-yard, and Gapey and Goat were watching her. Now she must come out to get home again, for there was no back-way ; so by Alec's orders they dispersed a little to avoid obser- vation, and drew gradually between the entrance of the inn-yard, and the way Juno would take to go home. The town was ordinarily lighted at night with oil-lamps, but moonlight and snow had rendered them for some time unnecessary. " Here she is ! Here she is !" cried several at once in a hissing whisper of excitement. " Lat at her!" " Haud still !" cried Alec. " Bide till I tell ye. Alec Forbes of Hou-glen. 147 Dinna ye see there 's Lang Tarn's dog wi' her, an' he 's done naething. Ye maunna punish the inno- cent wi' the guilty." A moment after, the dogs took their leave of each other, and Juno went, at a slow slouching trot, in the direction of her own street. " Close in !" cried Alec. Juno found her way barred in a threatening manner, and sought to pass meekly by. " Lat at her, boys !" cried the General. A storm of stones was their answer to the order ; and a howl of rage and pain burst from the animal. She turned ; but found that she was the centre of a circle of enemies. " Lat at her ! Haud at her !" bawled Alec. And thick as hail the well-aimed stones flew from practised hands ; though of course in the frantic rushes of the dog to escape, not half of them took effect. She darted first at one and then at another, snapping wildly, and meeting with many a kick and blow in return. The neighbours began to look out at their shop- doors and their windows ; for the boys, rapt in the excitement of the sport, no longer laid any restraint upon their cries. Andrew Constable, the clothier, from his shop-door ; Rob Guddle, the barber, from his window, with his face shadowed by Annie's curls ; Redford, the bookseller, from the top of the stairs L2 148 Alec Forbes of Howglen. that led to his shop ; in short, the whole of the shopkeepers on the square of Glaraerton were re- garding this battle of odds. The half -frozen place looked half-alive. But none of the good folks cared much to interfere, for flying stones are not pleasant of encounter. And indeed they could not clearly make out what was the matter. In a minute more, a sudden lull came over the hubbub. They saw all the group gather together in a mur- muring knot. The fact was this. Although cowardly enough now, the brute, infuriated with pain, had made a determined rush at one of her antagonists, and a short hand-to-teeth struggle was now taking place, during which the stoning ceased. " She has a grip o' my leg," said Alec quietly ; " and I hae a grip o' her throat. Curly, pit yer han' i' my jacket-pooch, an' tak' oot a bit towie ye '11 fin' there." Curly did as he was desired, and drew out a yard and a half of garden-line. " Jist pit it wi' ae single k-not roon' her neck, an' twa three o' ye tak' a haud at ilka en', and pu' for the life o' ye !" They hauled with hearty vigour. Juno's teeth relaxed their hold of Alec's calf ; in another minute her tongue was hanging out her mouth, and when they ceased the strain she lay limp on the snow. Alec Forbes of How glen, 149 With a shout of triumph, they started off at full speed, dragging the brute by the neck through the street. Alec essayed to follow them ; but found his leg too painful ; and was forced to go limping home. When the victors had run till they were out of breath, they stopped to confer; and the result of their conference was that in solemn silence they drew her home to the back gate, and finding all still in the yard, deputed two of their company to lay the dead body in its kennel. Curly and Linkum drew her into the yard, tumbled her into her barrel, which they set up on end, undid the string, and left Juno lying neck and tail together in ignominious peace. Before Alec reached home, his leg had swollen very much, and was so painful that he could hardly limp along ; for Juno had taken no passing snap, but a great strong mouthful. He concealed his condition from his mother for that night ; but next morning his leg was so bad, that there was no longer a possibility of hiding the fact. To tell a lie would have been so hard for Alec, that he had scarcely any merit in not telling one. So there was nothing for it but confession. His mother scolded him to a degree considerably beyond her own sense of the wrong, telling him he would get her into disgrace in the town as the mother of a 150 Alec Forbes of Howglen. lawless son, who meddled with other people's pro- perty in a way little better than stealing. "I fancy, mamma, a loun's legs are aboot as muckle his ain property as the tyke was Eob Brace's. It 's no the first time she 's bitten half a dizzen legs that were neither her ain nor her maister's." Mrs. Forbes could not well answer this argu- ment ; so she took advantage of the fact that Alec hadj in the excitement of self-defence, lapsed into Scotch. " Don't talk so vulgarly to me, Alec," she said ; " keep that for your ill-behaved companions in the town." " They 're no worse than I am, mamma. 1 was at the bottom of it." " I never said they were," she answered. But in heart she thought if they were not, there was little amiss with them. 151 CHAPTER XVIII. ALEC was once more condemned to the sofa, and Annie had to miss him, and wonder what had become of him. She always felt safe when Alec was there, and when he was not, she grew timid ; although whole days would sometimes pass without either speaking to the other. But before the morning was over, she learned the reason of his absence. For about noon, when all was tolerably harmo- nious in the school, the door opened, and the face of Robert Bruce appeared, with gleaming eyes of wrath. " Guid preserve 's !" said Scrumpie to his next neighbour. "Sic a hidin' as we s' a' get! Here's Rob Bruce ! Wha 's gane and tell't him ?" But some of the gang of conspirators, standing in a class near the door, stared in horror. Amongst them was Curly. His companions declared after- wards that had it not been for the strength of the 152 Alec Forbes of Howglen. curl, his hair would have stood upright. For, fol- lowing Bruce, led in fact by a string, came an awful apparition Juno herself, a pitiable mass of caninity looking like the resuscitated corpse of a dog that had been nine days buried, crowded with lumps, and speckled with cuts, going on three legs, and having her head and throat swollen to a size past recognition. " She 's no deid efter a' ! Deil tak' her ! for he 's in her," said Doddles. " We haena killed her eneuch," said Curly. " I tell't ye, Curly ! Ye had little ado to lowse the tow. She wad ha' been as deid afore the mornin' as Lucky Gordon's cat that ye cuttit the heid aff o'," said Linkum. " Eh ! but she luiks bonnie !" said Curly, trying to shake off his dismay. " Man, we' 11 hae 't a' to do ower again. Sic fun !'' But he could not help looking a little rueful when Linkum expressed a wish that they were themselves well through with their share of the killing. O And now the storm began to break. The master had gone to the door and shaken hands with his visitor, glancing a puzzled interrogation at the miserable animal in the string, which had just shape enough left to show that it was a dog. " I 'in verra sorry, Maister Malison, to come to A lee Forbes of Howglen. 1 53 you wi' my complaints," said Bruce; "but jist luik at the puir dumb animal ! She cudna come hersel', an' sae I bude to bring her. Stan' still, ye brute !" For Juno having caught sight of some boy- legs, through a corner of one eye not quite bunged up, began to tug at the string with feeble earnestness no longer, however, regarding the said legs as made for dogs to bite, but as fearful instruments of vengeance, in league with stones and cords. So the straining and pulling was all homewards. But her master had brought her as chief witness against the boys, and she must remain where she was. " Eh, lass !" he said, hauling her back by the string; "gin ye had but the tongue o' the pro- phet's ass, ye wad sune pint out the rascals that misguided and misgrugled ye that gait. But here 's the just judge that '11 gie ye yer richts, and that wi'oot fee or reward. Mr. Malison, she was ane o' the bonniest bicks ye cud set yer ee upo' " A smothered laugh gurgled through the room. "till some o' your loons nae offence, sir I ken weel eneuch they 're no yours, nor a bit like ye some o' your peowpils, sir, hae jist ca'd (driven) the sowl oot o' her wi' stanes." " Whaur does the sowl o' a bitch bide ?" asked Goat, in a whisper, of his neighbour. 154 A lee Forbes of Howglen. " De'il kens," answered Gapey ; " gin it binna i' the boddora o' Rob Bruce's wame." The master's wrath, ready enough to rise against boys and all their works, now shewed itself in the growing redness of his face. This was not one of his worst passions in them, he grew white for the injury had not been done to himself. " Can you tell me which of them did it ?" '' No, sir. There maun hae been mair nor twa or three at it, or she wad hae worried them. The best-natered beast i' the toon !" " William Macwha," cried Malison. " Here, sir." " Come up." Willie ascended to the august presence. He had made up his mind that, seeing so many had known all about it, and some of them had turned cowards, it would be of no service to deny the deed. " Do you know anything about this cruelty to the poor dog, William V said the master. Willie gave a Scotchman's answer, which, \vhile evasive, was yet answer and more. " She bet me, sir." " When ? While you were stoning her I" " No, sir. A month ago." " Ye 're a leein' vratch, Willie Macwha, as ye weel ken i' yer am conscience!" cried Bruce. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 155 " She 's the quaietest, kin'liest beast 'at ever was wholpit. See, sir ; jist luik ye here. She '11 lat ine pit my han' in her mou', an' tak' no more notice nor gin it was her ain tongue." Now whether it was that the said tongue was still swollen and painful, or that Juno, conscious of her own ill deserts, disapproved of the whole proceeding, I cannot tell ; but the result of this proof of her temper was that she made her teeth meet through Bruce's hand. " Damn the bitch !" he roared, snatching it away with the blood beginning to flow. A laugh, not smothered this time, billowed and broke through the whole school ; for the fact that Bruce should be caught swearing, added to the yet more delightful fact that Juno had bitten her master, was altogether too much. "Eh ! isna't weel we didna kill her efter a'?" said Curly. " Guid doggie !" said another, patting his own knee, as if to entice her to come and be caressed. " At him again, Juno !" said a third. " I'll gie her a piece the neist time I see her," said Curly. Bruce, writhing with pain, and mortified at the result of his ocular proof of Juno's incapability of biting, still more mortified at having so far for- gotten himself as to utter an oath, and altogether 156 Alec Forbes of Howglen. discomfited by the laughter, turned away in confu- sion. "It 's a' their wyte, the baad boys ! She never did the like afore. They hae ruined her temper," he said, as he left the school, following Juno, which was tugging away at the string as if she had been a blind man's dog. " Well, what have you to say for yourself, Wil- liam ?" said Malison. " She began 't, sir." This best of excuses would not, however, satisfy the master. The punishing mania had possibly taken fresh hold upon him. But he would put more questions first. " Who besides you tortured the poor animal ?" Curly was silent. He had neither a very high sense of honour, nor any principles to come and go upon ; but he had a considerable amount of de- votion to his party, which is the highest form of conscience to be found in many. " Tell me their names, sir ?" Curly was still silent. But a white-headed urchin, whom innumerable whippings, not bribes, had corrupted, cried out in a wavering voice : " Sanny Forbes was ane o' them ; an' he 's no here, 'cause Juno worried him." The poor creature gained little by his treachery; Alec Forbes of Hoivglen. 157 for the smallest of the conspirators fell on him when school was over, and gave him a thrashing, which he deserved more than ever one of Mali- son's. But the effect of Alec's name on the master was talismanic. He changed his manner at once, sent Curly to his seat, and nothing more was heard of Juno or her master. The opposite neighbours stared across, the next morning, in bewildered astonishment, at the place where the shop of Robert Bruce had been wont to invite the public to enter and buy. Had it been possible for an avalanche to fall like a thunderbolt from the heavens, they would have supposed that one had fallen in the night, and overwhelmed the house. Door and windows were invisible, buried with the rude pavement in front beneath a mass of snow. Spades and shovels in boys' hands had been busy for hours during the night, throwing it up against the house, the door having first been blocked up with a huge ball, which they had rolled in silence the whole length of the long street. Bruce and his wife slept in a little room im- mediately behind the shop, that they might watch over their treasures ; and Bruce's first movement in the morning was always into the shop to unbolt the door and take down the shutters. His aston- 158 Alec Forbes of Howglen. ishment when he looked upon a blank wall of snow may be imagined. He did not question that the whole town was similarly overwhelmed. Such a snow-storm had never been heard of before, and he thought with uneasy recollection of the oath he had uttered in the school-room ; imagining for a moment that the whole of Glamerton lay over- whelmed by the divine wrath, because he had, under the agony of a bite from his own dog, con- signed her to a quarter where dogs and children are not admitted. In his bewilderment, he called aloud : "Nancy! Robbie! Johnnie! "We're a'beeriet alive!" " Preserve 's a', Robert ! what 's happent ?" cried his wife, rushing from the kitchen. " I 'in no beeriet, that I ken o'," cried Robert the younger, entering from the yard. His father rushed to the back-door, and, to his astonishment and relief, saw the whole world about him. It was a private judgment, then, upon him and his shop. And so it was a very private judgment. Probably it was the result of his medi- tations upon it, that he never after carried com- plaints to Murdoch Malison. Alec Forbes had nothing to do with this revenge. But Bruce always thought he was at the bottom of it, and hated him the more. He disliked all loons but his own ; for was not the spirit of loons the Alec Forbes of Howglen. 159 very antipodes to that of money-making? But Alec Forbes he hated, for he was the very antipode to Robert Bruce himself. Mrs. Bruce always fol- lowed her husband's lead, being capable only of two devotions the one to her husband and children, the other to the shop. Of Annie they highly and righteously disapproved, partly because they had to feed her, and partly because she was friendly with Alec. This disapproval rose into dislike after their sons had told them that it was because Juno had bitten her that the boys of the school, with Alec for a leader, had served her as they had. But it was productive of no disadvantage to her ; for it could not take any active form because of the money-bond between them, while its negative opera- tion gave rise chiefly to neglect, and so left her more at liberty, to enjoy herself as she could after her own fashion. For the rest of Juno's existence, the moment she caught sight of a boy, she fled as fast as her four bow-legs would carry her, not daring even to let her tail stick out behind her, lest it should afford a handle against her. 160 CHAPTER XIX. WHEN Annie heard that Alec had been bitten, she was miserable. She knew his bite must be worse than hers, or he would not be kept at home. Might she not venture to go and see him again ? The modesty of a maidenly child made her fear to intrude ; but she could not restrain her feet from following the path to his house. And as it was very dusk, what harm could there be in going just inside the gate, and on to the green ? Through the parlour windows she saw the fire burning bright, and a shadow moving across the walls and the ceiling ; but she could not make up her mind to knock at the door, for she was afraid of Mrs. Forbes, notwithstanding her kindness. So she wandered on for here there was no dog wondering what that curious long mound of snow, with the round heap at the end, by the flag-staff, could be ? \Vhat could Alec have made it for ? Examining it closely all along, she came to the A lee Forbes of Howglen. 161 end of it next the house, and looking round saw that it was hollow. Without a moment's thought, for she had no fear of Alec, she entered. The passage was dark, but she groped her way, on and on, till she came to the cell at the end. Here a faint ghostly light glimmered ; for Alec had cleared a small funnel upwards through the roof, almost to the outside, so that a thin light filtered through a film of snow. This light being reflected from the white surface of the cave, showed it all throb- bing about her with a faint bluish white, ever and anon whelmed in the darkness and again glimmer- ing out through its folds. She seated herself on a ledge of snow that ran all round the foundation. It was not so cold here as in the outer air, where a light frosty wind was blowing across the world of snow. And she had not sat long, before, accoiTling to her custom when left to herself, she fell fast asleep. Meantime, Alec, his mother having gone to the town, was sitting alone, finishing, by the light of the fire, the last of a story. At length the dreari- ness of an ended tale was about him, and he felt the inactivity to which he had been compelled all day no longer tolerable. He would go and see how his snow-chamber looked by candle-light. His mother had told him not to go out ; but that, he reasoned, could hardly be called going out, when there was VOL. I. il 162 Alec Forbes of Howglen. not more than a yard of open air to cross. So lie got a candle, was out of the window in a moment, notwithstanding his lameness, and crept through the long vault of snow towards the inmost recess. As he approached the end, he started. Could he believe his eyes ? A figure was there motionless dead perhaps. He went on he went in and there he saw Annie, leaning against the white wall, with her white face turned up to the frozen ceiling. She might have been the frost-queen, the spirit that made the snow, and built the hut, and dwelt in it ; for all the powers that vivify nature must be children. The popular imagination seems to have caught this truth, for all the fairies and gnomes and goblins, yes, the great giants too, are only different sizes, shapes, and characters of chil- dren. But I have wandered from Alec's thoughts into my own. He knew it was Annie, and no strange creature of the elements. And if he had not come, she might have slept on till her sleep was too deep for any voice of the world to rouse her. It was, even then, with difficulty that he woke her. He took hold of her hands, but she did not move. He sat down, took her in his arms, spoke to her got frightened and shook her, but she would not open her eyes. Her long dark eyelashes sloped still upon her white cheek, like the low Alec Forbes of Howglen. 163 branches of a cedar upon the lawn at its foot. But he knew she was not dead yet, for he could feel her heart beating. At length she lifted her eye- lids, looked up in his face, gave a low happy laugh, like the laugh of a dreaming child, and was fast asleep again in a moment. Alec hesitated no longer. He rose with her in his arms, carried her into the parlour, and laid her down on the rug before the fire, with a sofa-pillow under her head. There she might have her sleep out. When Mrs. Forbes came home, she found Alec reading, and Annie sleeping by the fireside. Before his mother had recovered from her surprise, and while she was yet staring at the lovely little apparition, Alec had the first word. " Mamma !" he said, " I found her sleeping in my snow hut there; and if I had not brought her in, she would have been dead by this time." " Poor little darling !" thought Mrs. Forbes ; but she was Scotch, and therefore she did not say it. But she stooped, and drew the child back from the fire, lest she should have her face scorched, and after making the tea, proceeded to put off her bonnet and shawl. By the time she had got rid of them, Annie was beginning to move, and Alec rose to go to her. " Let her alone," said his mother. " Let her come to herself by degrees. Come to the table." M 2 164: Alec Forbes of Howglen. Alec obeyed. They could see that Annie had opened her eyes, and lay staring at the fire. What was she thinking about ? She had fallen asleep in the snow-hut, and here she was by a bright fire! " Annie, dear, come to your tea," were the first words that she heard. She rose and went, and sat down at the table with a smile, taking it all as the gift of God, or a good dream, and never ask- ing how she had come to be so happy. 165 CHAPTER XX. spirit of mischief had never been so JL thoroughly aroused in the youth of Glam- erton, as it was this winter. The snow lay very deep, while almost every day a fresh fall added to its depth, and this rendered some of their winter- amusements impossible ; while not many of them had the imagination of Alec Forbes to suggest new ones. At the same time the cold increased, and strengthened their impulses to muscular exer- tion. " Thae loons are jist growin' perfect deevils," said Charlie Chapman, the wool-carder, as he bolted into his own shop, with the remains of a snowball melting down the back of his neck. " We maun hae anither constable to haucl them in order." The existing force was composed of one long- legged, short- bodied, middle-aged man, who was so slow in his motions, apparently from the weight 166 Alec Forbes of Hou'glen. of his feet, which were always dragging behind him, that the boys called him Stumpin' Steenie, (dim. for "Stephen?), and stood in no more awe of him than they did of his old cow which, her owner being a widower, they called Mrs. Stephen when she went up the street, hardly able to waddle along for the weight of her udder. So there was some little ground for the wool-carder's remark. How much a second constable would have availed, however, is doubtful. " I never saw sic widdiefows !" (gallows-birds), chimed in a farmer's wife who was standing in the shop. " They had a tow across the Wast Wynd i' the snaw, an doon I cam o' my niz, as sure 's your name 's Charles Chapman and mair o' my legs oot o' my coats, I doobt, than was a'thegither to my credit." " I 'm sure ye can hae no rizzon to tak' shame o' your legs, gude wife," was the gallant rejoinder ; to which their owner replied, with a laugh : " They warna made for public inspection, ony gait." "Hoot! hoot! Xaebody saw them. Is'warran' ye didna lie lang ! But thae loons they 're jist past a' ! Heard ye hoo they saired Rob Bruce V " Fegs ! they tell me they a' but buried him alive." " Ow ! ay. But it 's a later story, the last." A lee Forbes of Hoicglen. 167 " It 's a pity there 's no a dizzen or twa o' them in Awbrahawm's boasom. What did they till him neist ?" Here Andrew Constable dropped in, and Chap- man turned toAvards him with the question : " Did ye hear, Mr. Constable, what the loons did to Robert Bruce the nicht afore last ?" " No. What was that ? They hae a spite at puir Eob, I believe." " Weel, it didna look a'thegither like respeck, I maun alloo. I was stannin' at the coonter o' his shop waitin' for an unce o' sneeshin' ; and Robert he was serviu' a bit bairnie ower the coonter wi' a pennyworth o' triacle, whan, in a jiffey, there cam' sic a blast, an' a reek fit to smore ye, oot o' the bit fire, an' the shop was fu' o' reek, afore ye could hae pitten the pint o' ae thoom upo' the pint o' the ither. l Preserve 's a' !' cried Rob ; but or he could say anither word, butt the house, scushlin in her bauchles, comes Xancy, rinriin', an' opens the door wi' a scraich : ' Preserve 's a' !' quo' she, ' Robert, the lum 's in a low !' An' fegs ! atween the twa reeks, to sunder them, there was nothing but Xancy hersel. + The hoose was as fu' as it cud haud, frae cellar, to garret, o' the blackest reek 'at ever crap oot o' coal, Oot we ran, an' it was a sicht to see the crater wi' his lang neck luikin' up at the chim- Jeys. But cleil a spark cam' oot o' them or reek 168 Alec Forbes of Hou'glen. either, for that maitter. It was easy to see what was amiss. The loons had been o' the riggin, and flung a han'fu' o' blastin' powther down ilka smokin' chimley, aud syne clappit a divot or a truf upo' the mou' o' 't. Deil ane o' them was in sicht, but I doobt gin ony o' them was far awa'. There was naething for 't but get a ladder, and jist gang up an' tak aff the pot-lids. But eh ! puir Robert was jist rampin' wi' rage ! No 'at he said muckle, for he daur hardly open his mou' for sweerin' ; and Robert wadna sweer, ye ken ; but he was neither to haud nor bin'." " What laddies war they, Charles, do ye ken ?" asked Andrew. " There 's a heap o' them up to tricks. Gin I haena the rheumateese screwin' awa' atween my shoothers the nicht, it wonna be their fau'ts ; for as I cam' ower frae the ironmonger's there, I jist got a ba' i' the how o' my neck, 'at amaist sent me liowkin' wi' my snoot i' the snaw. And there it stack, and at this preceese moment it 's rinnin' doon the sma' o' my back as gin 't war a burnie doon a hillside. We maun hae mair constables !" " Hoot ! toot ! Charles. Ye dinna want a con- stable to dry yer back. Gang to the gudewife wi' 't,'' said Andrew, " she'll gie ye a dry sark. Na, na. Lat the laddies work it aff. As lang 's they haud their han's frae what doesna belang to Alec Forbes of How glen. 169 them, I dinna min' a bit ploy noo and than. They '11 no turn oot the waur men for a pliskie or twa." The fact was, none of the boys would have dreamed of interfering with Andrew Constable. Everybody respected him ; not because he was an elder of the kirk, but because he was a good- tempered, kindly, honest man ; or to sum up all in one word a douce chield by which word douce is indicated every sort of propriety of behaviour a virtue greatly esteemed by the Scotch. This adjec- tive was universally applied to Andrew. While Alec was confined to the house, he had been busy inventing all kinds of employ- ments for the period of the snow. His lessons never occupied much of his thoughts, and no pains having yet been taken to discover in what direction his tastes inclined him, he had of course to cater for himself. The first day of his return, when school was over, he set off rejoicing in his freedom, for a ramble through the snow, still revolving what he was to do next ; for he wanted some steady em- ployment with an end in view. In the course of his solitary walk, he came to the Wan Water, the other river that flowed through the wide valley and wan enough it was now with its snow-sheet over it ! As he stood looking at its still, dead face, and lamenting that the snow lay too deep over the ice to admit of skating, by a sudden reaction, a 170 Alec Forbes of Howglen. summer-vision of the live water arose before him ; and he thought how delightful it would be to go sailing down the sparkling ripples, with the green fields all about him, and the hot afternoon sun over his head. That would be better even than scudding along it on his skates. His next thought was at once an idea and a resolve. Why should he not build a boat ? He would build a boat. He would set about it directly. Here was work for the rest of the winter ! His first step must be to go home and have his dinner ; his next to consult George Macwha, who had been a ship-carpenter in his youth. He would run over in the evening before George should have dropped work, and commit the plan to his judg- ment. In the evening, then, Alec reached the town, on his way to George Macwha. It was a still lovely night, clear and frosty, with yes, there were millions of stars overhead. Away in the north, the stream- ers were shooting hither and thither, with marvel- lous evanescence and re-generation. No dance of goblins could be more lawless in its grotesqueness than this dance of the northern lights in their ethereal beauty, shining, with a wild ghostly changefulness and feebleness, all colours at once ; now here, now there, like a row of slender organ- pipes, rolling out and in and along the sky. Or A lee Forbes of How glen. 171 they might have been the chords of some gigantic stringed instrument, which chords became visible only when mighty hands of music struck their keys and set them vibrating; so that, as the hands swept up and down the Titanic key-board, the chords themselves seemed to roll along the heavens, though in truth some vanished here and others ap- peared yonder. Up and down they darted, and away and back and always in the direction he did not expect them to take. He thought he heard them crackle, and he stood stillto listen; but he could not be sure that it was not the snow sinking and crisping beneath his feet. All around him was still as a world too long frozen : in the heavens alone was there motion. There this entrancing dance of colour and shape went on, wide beneath, and tapering up to the zenith. Truly there was revelry in heaven ! One might have thought that a prodigal son had just got home, and that the music and the dancing had begun, of which only the far-off rhythmic shine could reach the human sense ; for a dance in heaven might well show itself in colour to the eyes of men. Alec went on till the lights from the windows of the town began to throw shadows across the snow. The street was empty. From end to end nothing moved but an occasional shadow. As he came near to Macwha's shop, he had to pass a row of cottages which stood 172 Alec Forbes of How glen. with their backs to a steep slope. Here too all was silent as a frozen city. But when he was about opposite the middle of the row, he heard a stifled laugh, and then a kind of muffled sound as of hurry- ing steps, and, in a moment after, every door in the row was torn open, and out bolted the inhabitants here an old woman, halting on a stick as she came, there a shoemaker, with last and awl in his hands, here a tailor with his shears, and there a whole family of several trades and ages. Every one rushed into the middle of the road, turned right round and looked up. Then arose such a clamour of tongues, that it broke on the still air like a storm. " AMiat 's ado, Betty ?" asked Alec of a decrepit old creature, bent almost double with rheumatism, who was trying hard to see something or other in the air or on the roof of her cottage. But before she could speak, the answer came in another form, addressing itself to his nose instead of his ears. For out of the cottages floated clouds of smoke, pervading the air with a variety of scents of burning oak-bark, of burning leather-cut- tings, of damp fire-wood and peat, of the cooking of red herrings, of the boiling of porridge, of the baking of oat-cake, &c., &c. Happily for all the inhabi- tants, " thae deevils o' loons " had used no powder here. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 173 But the old woman, looking round when Alec spoke, and seeing that he was one of the obnoxious school-boys, broke out thus : " Gang an' tak the divot (turf) aff o' my lum, Alec, there 's a good laad ! Ye sudua play sic tricks on puir auld bodies like me, near brackin' in twa wi' the rheumateeze. I 'in jist greetin' wi' the reek i' my auld een." And as she spoke she wiped her eyes with her apron. Alec did not wait to clear himself of an accusa- tion so gently put, but was on the roof of Luckie Lapp's cottage before she had finished her appeal to his generosity. He took the " divot aff o' her lum " and pitched it half-way down the brae, at the back of the cottage. Then he scrambled from one chimney to the other, and went on pitching the sods down the hill. At length two of the inhabi- tants, who had climbed up at the other end of the row, met him, and taking him for a repentant sinner at best, made him prisoner, much to his amusement, and brought him down, protesting that it was too bad of gentlefolk's sons to persecute the poor in that way. " I didn't do it," said Alec. " Dinna lee," was the curt rejoinder. " I'm no leein'." "Whadidit, than!" 174 Alec Forles of Howglen. " I can guiss ; an' it shanna happen again, gin I can help it." "Ten's whadidit, than." "I wonno say names." "He's ane o' them." "The foul thief tak him! I s' gie him a liiclin'," said a burly sutor (shoemaker) coming up. "Thae loons are no to be borne wi' ony langer." And he caught Alec by the arm. " I didn't do it/' persisted Alec. "Wha killed Kob Brace's dog?" asked the sutor, squeezing Alec's arm to point the ques- tion. " I did," answered Alec ; " and I will do yours the same gaid turn, gin he worries bairns." " And quite richt, too !" said the sutor's wife. " Lat him gang, Donal. I '11 be boun' he 's no ane o' them." "Tell 's a' aboot it, than. Hoo cam ye up there?" " I gaed up to tak the divot aff o' Lucky Lapp's lum. Speir at her. Ance up I thocht I micht gie the lave o' ye a gude turn, and this is a' I get for't." "AVeel, weel.J Come in and warm ye, than," said the shoemaker, convinced at last. So Alec went in and had a chat with them, and then went on to George Macwha's. Alec Forbes of How glen. 175 The carpenter took to his scheme at once. Alec was a fair hand at all sorts of tool-work ; and be- ing on the friendliest terms with Macwha, it was soon arranged that the keel should be laid in the end of the workshop, and that, under George's directions, and what help Willie chose to render, Alec should build his boat himself. Just as they concluded these preliminaries, in came Willie, wiping some traces of blood from his nose. He made a pantomimic gesture of vengeance at Alec. " What hae ye been efter noo, laddie ?" asked his father. " Alec 's jist gien me a bluidy nose," said Willie. " Hoo cam' that aboot ? Ye weel deserved it, I hae nae doobt. Jist gie him anither whan he w r aiits it, Alec." " What doye mean, Curly?" asked Alec in amaze- ment. " Yon divot 'at ye flang aff o' Luckie Lapp's riggin'," said Curly, " cam' richt o' the back o' my lieid, as I lay o' the brae, and dang the blude oot at my niz. That 's a'. Ye '11 preten' ye didna see me, nae doobt." u I say, Curly," said Alec, putting his arm round his shoulders, and leading him aside, "we maun hae nae mair o' this kin' o' wark. It 's a dam't shame ! Do ye see nae differ atvveen chokin' 176 Alec Forbes of Howglen. an ill-faured tyke, an' chokin' a puir widow's lum r " 'T was only for fun." " It 's ill fun that baith sides canna lauch at, Curly." " Eob Bruce wasna lauchin' whan he brocht the bick to the schuil, nor yet whan he gaed hame again." " That was nae fun, Curly. That was doon- richt earnest." " Weel, weel, Alec ; say nae mair aboot it." " No more I will. But gin I was you, Curly, I wad takLucky a seek o' spales the morn." " I '11 tak them the nicht, Alec. Father, hae ye an auld seek ony gait ?" " There 's ane up i' the laf t. What want ye wi' a seek?" But Curly was in the loft almost before the question had left his father's lips. He was down again in a moment, and on his knees filling the sack with shavings and all the chips he could find. " Gie 's a han' up wi' 't, Alec," he said. And in a moment more Curly was off to Widow Lapp with his bag of firing. " He 's a fine chield that Willie o' yours, George," said Alec to the father. "'He only wants to hae a thing weel pitten afore him, an' he jist acts upo' 't direckly." Alec Forbes of Howglen. 177 " It 's weel he maks a cronie o' you, Alec. There 's a heap o' mischeef in him. Whaur 's he aff wi' thae spells ?" Alec told the story, much to the satisfaction of George, who could appreciate the repentance of his son ; although he was " nane o' the unco guid" himself. From that day he thought more of his son, and of Alec as well. "Noo, Curly," said Alec, as soon as he re-ap- peared with the empcy sack, " yer father 's gaein to lat me big a boat, an' ye maun help me." " What 's the use o' a boat i' this weather ?" said Curly. " Yegomeril !" returned his father; "ye never luik an inch afore the pint o' yer ain neb. Ye wadna think o' a boat afore the spring ; an' haith ! the summer wad be ower, an' the water frozen again, afore ye had it biggit. Luik at Alec there. He 's worth ten o' you." " I ken that ilka bit as weel 's ye do, father. Jist set's aff wi"t, father." " I canna attend till 't jist i' the noo ; but I s' set ye aff wi' 't the morn's nicht." So here was an end to the troubles of the towns- folk from the loons, and without any increase of the constabulary force ; for Curly being withdrawn, there was no one else of sufficiently inventive energy to take the lead, and the loons ceased VOL. I. N Alec Forbes of Howglen. to be dangerous to the peace of the community. Curly soon had both his head and his hands quite occupied with boat-building. 179 CHAPTER XXL TH VERY afternoon, now, the moment dinner was JLJ over, Alec set off for the workshop, and did not return till eight o'clock, or sometimes later. Mrs. Forbes did not at all relish this change in his habits ; but she had the good sense not to inter- fere. One day he persuaded her to go with him, and see how the boat was getting on. This enticed her into some sympathy with his new pursuit. For there was the boat a skeleton it is true, and not nearly ready yet for the clothing of its planks, or its final skin of paint yet an undeniable boat to the motherly eye of hope. And there were Alec and Willie working away before her eyes, doing their best to fulfil the promise of its looks. A little quiet chat she had with George Macwha, in which he poured forth the praises of her boy, did not a little, as well, to reconcile her to his desertion of her. N 2 180 Alec Forbes of How glen. " Deed, mem," said George, whose acquaintance with Scripture was neither extensive nor precise, " to my mind he's jist a fulfilment o' the prophecee, * An auld heid upo' young shouthers' ; though I canna richtly min' whilk o' the lesser prophets it is that conteens 't." But Mrs. Forbes never saw a little figure, lying in a corner, half-buried in wood-shavings, and utterly unconscious of her presence, being fast asleep. This was, of course, Annie Anderson, who having heard of the new occupation of her hero, had, one afternoon, three weeks before Mrs. Forbes's visit, found herself at George's shop-door, she hardly knew how. It seemed to her that she had followed her feet, and they had taken her there before she knew where they were going. Peeping in, she watched Alec and Willie for some time at their work, without venturing to show herself. But George, who came up behind her as she stood, and perceived her interest in the operations of the boys, took her by the hand, and led her in, saying kindly : " Here 's a new apprentice, Alec. She wants to learn boat-biggin." " Ou ! Annie, is that you, lassie ? Come awa'," said Alec. " There 's a fine heap o' spales ye can sit upo', and see what we 're aboot." Alec Forbes of Howglen. 181 And so saying he seated her on the shavings, and half-buried her with an armful more to keep her warm. " Put to the door, Willie," he added. She '11 be cauld. She 's no workin', ye see." Whereupon Willie shut the door, and Annie found herself very comfortable indeed. There she sat, in perfect contentment, watching the progress of the boat a progress not very perceptible to her inexperienced eyes, for the building of a boat is like the building of a city or the making of a book : It turns out a boat at last. But after she had sat for a good while in silence, she looked up at Alec, and said : " Is there naething I can do to help ye, Alec f "Naething, Annie. Lassies canna saw or plane, ye ken. Ye wad tak' aff yer ain lugs in a Again she was silent for a long time ; and then, with a sigh, she looked up and said : "Alec, I'm so cauld!" " I '11 bring my plaid to row ye in the morn's nicht," Annie's heart bounded for joy; for here was what amounted to an express invitation for to- morrow. " But," Alec went on, " come wi' me, and we '11 sune get ye warm again. Gie 's yer han'." 182 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Annie gave Alec her hand ; and he lifted her out of her heap of spales, and led her a\vay. She never thought of asking where he was leading her. They had not gone far down the close, when a roaring sound fell upon her ear, growing louder and louder as they went on ; till, turning a sharp corner, there they saw the smithy fire. The door of the smithy was open, and they could see the smith at work some distance off. The fire glowed with gathered rage at the impudence of the bellows blowing in its face. The huge smith, with one arm flung affectionately over the shoulder of the insulting party, urged it to the contest ; while he stirred up the other to increased ferocity, by poking a piece of iron into the very middle of it. How the angry glare started out of it and stared all the murky smiddy in the face, showing such gloomy holes and corners in it, and such a lot of horse-shoes hung up close to the roof, ready to be fitted for unbelievable horse-wear; and making the smith's face and bare arms glow with a dusky red, like hot metal, as if '' t he were the gnome-king of molten iron. Then he stooped, and took up some coal dust in a little shovel, and patted it down over the fire, and blew stronger than ever, and the sparks flew out with the rage of the fire. Annie was delighted to look at it ; but there w r as a cer- tain fierceness about the whole affair that made Alec Forbes of How glen. 183 her shrink frum going nearer ; and she could not help feeling a little afraid of the giant smith in particular, with his brawny arms that twisted and tortured iron bars all day long, and his black angry-looking face, that seemed for ever fighting with fire and stiff-necked metal. His very look into the forge-fire ought to have been enough to put it out of countenance. Perhaps that was why it was so necessary to keep blowing and poking at it. Again he stooped, caught up a great iron spoon, dipped it into a tub of water, and poured the spoonful on the fire a fresh insult, at which it hissed and sputtered, like one of the fiery flying serpents of Avhich she had read in her bible gigantic, dragon-like creatures to her imagination in a perfect insanity of fury. But not the slightest motion of her hand lying in Alec's, in- dicated reluctance, as he led her into the shop, and right up to the wrathful man, saying : " Peter Whaup, here 's a lassie 'at 's 'maist frozen to deid wF cauld. Will ye tak' her in and lat her stan' by your ingle-neuk, and warm hersel' ?" "I'll do that, Alec. Come in by, my bairn. What ca' they ye T " Annie Anderson." " Ow, ay ! I ken a' aboot ye weel eneuch. Ye can lea' her wi' me, Alec ; I '11 luik efter her." " I maun gang back to my boat, Annie," said 184 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Alec, then, apologetically, " but I '11 come in for ye again." So Annie was left with the smith, of whom she was not the least afraid, now that she had heard him speak. With his leathern apron, caught up in both, hands, he swept a space on the front of the elevated hearth of the forge, clear of cinders and dust, and then, having wiped his hands on the same apron, lifted the girl as tenderly as if she had been a baby, and set her down on this spot, about a yard from the fire, on a level with it ; and there she sat, in front of the smith, looking at the fire and the smith and the work he was about, in turns. He asked her a great many questions about herself and the Bruces, and her former life at home ; and every question he asked, he put in a yet kindlier voice. Sometimes he would stop in the middle of blowing, and lean forward with his arm on the handle of the bellows, and look full in the child's face till she had done answering him, with eyes that shone in the fire-light as if the tears would have gathered, but could not for the heat. "Ay! ay!" he would say, when she had answered him, and resume his blowing, slowly and dreamily. For this terrible smith's heart was just like his fire. He was a dreadful fellow for fight- ing and quarrelling, when he got a drop too much, which was rather too often, if the truth must be Alec Forbes of Howglen. 185 told ; but to this little woman-child his ways were as soft and tender as a woman's : he could burn or warm. " An' sae ye likit bein' at the ferm best ?" he said. " Ay. But ye see my father deid " . " I ken that, my bairn. The Lord haud a grip o'ye!" It was not often that Peter Whaup indulged in a pious ejaculation. But this was a genuine one, and may be worth recording for the sake of Annie's answer : "I'm thinkin' he hauds a grip o' us a', Mr. Whaup." And then she told him the story about the rats and the cat ; for hardly a day passed jus't at this time, without her not merely recalling it, but re- flecting upon it. And the smith drew the back of his hand across both his eyes when she had done, and then pressed them both hard with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, as if they ached, while his other arm went blowing away as if no- thing was the matter but plenty of wind for the forge-fire. Then he pulled out the red hot gad, or iron bar, w r hich he seemed to have forgotten ever since Annie came in, and, standing with his back to her to protect her from the sparks, put it on his anvil, and began to lay on it, as if in a 186 Alec Forbes of Howglen. fury ; while the sparks fl*ew from his blows as if in mortal terror of the angry man that was pelting at the luminous glory laid thus submissive before him. In fact, Peter was attempting to hammer out more things than one upon that study of his ; for in Scotland they call a smith's anvil a study, so that he ranks with other artists in that respect. Then, as if anxious to hear the child speak yet again, he said, putting the iron once more in the fire, and proceeding to rouse the wrath of the coals: " Ye kent Jeames Dow, than ?" "Ay; weel that. I kent Dooie as weel as Broonie." " Wha was Broonie ?" " Ow ! naebody but my ain coo." " An' Jeames was kin' to ye T' To this question no reply followed ; but Peter, who stood looking at her, saw her lips and the muscles of her face quivering an answer, which if uttered at all could come only in sobs and tears. But the sound of approaching steps and voices restored her equanimity, and a listening look gra- dually displaced the emotion on her countenance. Over the half-door of the shop appeared two men, each bearing on his shoulder the socks (shares) of two ploughs, to be sharpened, or set. The instant she saw them, she tumbled off her perch, and before they had got the door opened was half way to it, Alec Forbes of Howglen. 187 crying, "Dooie! Dooie!"* Another instant and she was lifted high in Dowie's arms. " My little mistress !" exclaimed he, kissing her. " Hoo cam ye here ?" " I 'm safe eneuch here, Dooie ; dinna be fleyt. I '11 tell ye a' aboot it. Alec's in George Macwha's shop yonner." " And wha 's Alec ?" asked Dowie. Leaving them now to their private commu- nications, I will relate, for the sake of its result, what passed between James Dow's companion and the smith. " The last time," said the youth, " that ye set my sock, Peter Whaup, ye turned it oot jist as saft 's potty, and it wore oot raither suner." " Hoot ! man, ye mistak. It wasna the sock. It was the heid that cam' ahin' 't, and kentna hoo to haud it aff o' the stanes." " Ha ! ha ! ha ! My heid 's nae sae saft 's yer ain. It's no rosten a' day like yours, till it's birstled (scorched) and sung (singed) like a sheep's- Jist gie me a haud o' the taings, an' I s' set my s ock to my ain min'." Peter gave up the tongs at once, and the young fellow proceeded to put the share in the fire, and to work the bellows. " Ye '11 never mak ony thing o' 't that gait," said Peter, as he took the tongs from his hand, and 188 Alec Forbes of Howglen. altered the position of the share for him. " Ye wad hae 't black upo' ae side and white upo' the ither. Noo ca (drive) steady, an' dinna blaw the fire aff o' the forge." But when it came to the anvil part of the work, Peter found so many faults with the handling and the execution generally, that at length the lad threw down the tongs with a laugh and an oath intermingled, saying : "Ye can mak' potty o' 't yersel, than, Peter. Ye jist min' me o' the Waesome Carl." "What's that o' 't, Kory, man T " Ow ! naething but a bit sang that I cam' upo' the ither day i' the neuk o' an auld newspaper." "Lat's hear 't," said Peter. "Sing't,Rory. Ye 're better kent for a guid sang than for settin' socks." " I canna sing 't, for I dinna ken the tune o' 't. I only got a glimp' o' 't, as I tell ye, in an auld news." (c Weel, say 't, than. Ye 're as weel kent for a guid memory, as a guid sang." Without more preamble, Rory repeated, with appropriate gesture, THE WAESOME CARL. There cam a man to oor toon-en', An' a waesome carl was he ; Wi' a snubbert nose, an' a crookit mou', An' a cock in his left ee. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 189 And muckle he spied, and muckle he spak'; But the burden o' his sang TVas aye the same, and ower again : There 's nane o' ye a' but 's wrang. Ye 're a' wrang, and a' wrang, And a'thegither a' wrang ; There 's no a man aboot the town, But 's a'thegither a' wrang. That 's no the gait to bake the breid, Nor yet to brew the yill ; That 's no the gait to haud the pleuch, Nor yet to ca the mill. That 's no the gait to milk the coo, Nor yet to spean the calf ; Nor yet to fill the girnel-kist Ye kenna yer wark by half. Ye 're a' wrang, &c. The minister was na fit to pray, And lat alane to preach ; He nowther had the gift o' grace, Nor yet the gift o' speech. He mind 't him o' Balaam's ass, WT a differ ye may ken : The Lord he open'd the ass's mou', The minister open'd 's ain. He 's a'- wrang, &c. 190 Alec Forbes of Howglen. The puir precentor cudna sing, He gruntit like a swine ; The verra elders cudna pass The ladles till his min'. And for the rulin' elder's grace, It wasna worth a horn ; He didna half uncurse the meat, Nor pray for mair the morn. He 's a' wrang, &c. And aye he gied his nose a thraw, And aye he crookit his mou' ; And aye he cockit up his ee, And said, " Tak' tent the noo." We leuch ahint oor loof Qjalm), man, And never said him nay ; And aye he spak' jist lat him speik ! And aye he said his say : Ye 're a' wrang, &c. Quo' oor guidman : " The crater's daft ; But wow ! he has the claik ; Lat 's see gin he can turn a han' Or only luik and craik. It 's true we maunna lippen till him He 's fairly crack wi' pride ; But he maun live, we canna kill him Gm he can work, he s' bide." He was a' wrang, &c. A lee Forbes of Howglen . 19] " It 's true it 's but a laddie's turn, But we '11 begin wi' a sma' thing ; There 's a' thae weyds to gather an' burn An' he 's the man for a' thing." We gaed oor wa's, and loot him be, To do jist as he micht ; We think to hear nae mair o' him, Till we come hame at nicht ; But we 're a' wrang, &c. For, losh ! or it was denner-time, The lift (firmament) was in a low ; The reek rase up, as it had been Frae Sodom-flames, I vow. We ran like mad ; but corn and byre War blazin' wae 's the fell ! As gin the deil had broucht the fire, To mak' anither hell. 'T was a' wrang, &c. And by the blaze the carl stud, Wi' 's haiTs aneath his tails ; And aye he said " I tauld ye sae, An' ye 're to blame yersels. It 's a' your wite (blame), for ye 're a' wrang Ye '11 maybe own 't at last : What gart ye burn thae deevilich weyds, Whan the win' blew frae the wast ? 192 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Ye 're a' wrang, and a' wrang, And a'thegither a' wrang ; There 's no a man in a' the warl' But 's a'thegither a' wrang. Before the recitation was over, which was per- formed with considerable spirit and truth, Annie and Dowie were listening attentively, along with Alec, who had returned to take Annie back, and who now joined loudly in the applause which fol- lowed the conclusion of the verses. "Faith, that was a chield to haud oot ower frae," said Alec to Rory. " And ye said the sang weel. Ye sud learn to sing't, though." " Maybe I may, some clay ; gin I cud only get a grain ie saut to pit upo' the tail o' the bird that kens the tune o' 't. What ca' they you, noo ? " " Alec Forbes," answered the owner of the name. "Ay," interposed Annie, addressing herself to Dowie, who still held her in his arms ; " this is Alec, that I tell't ye aboot. He 's richt guid to me. Alec, here 's Dooie, 'at I like better nor onybody i' the warl'." And she turned and kissed the bronzed face, which was a clean face, notwithstanding the con- trary appearance given to it by a beard of three days' growth, which Annie's kiss was too full of love to mind. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 193 Annie would have been yet more ready to tell Dowie and Alec each who the other was, had she not been occupied in her own mind with a discovery she had made. For had not those verses given evident delight to the company Alec among the rest ? Had he not applauded loudest of all ? Was there not here something she could do, and so contri- bute to the delight of the workmen, Alec and Willie, and thus have her part in the boat growing beneath their hands? She would then be no longer a tolerated beholder, indebted to their charity for permission to enjoy their society, but a contributing member of the working community if not work- ing herself, yet upholding those that wrought. The germ of all this found itself in her mind that moment, and she resolved before next night to be able to emulate Rory. Dowie carried her home in his arms, and on the way she told him all about the kindness of Alec and his mother. He asked her many questions about the Bruces ; but her patient nature, and the instinctive feeling that it would make Dowie un- happy, withheld her from representing the dis- comforts of her position in strong colours. Dowie, however, had his own thoughts on the matter. "Hoo are ye the nicht, Mr. Dow?" said Robert, who treated him with oily respect, be- cause he was not only acquainted with all Annie's VOL. I. 194 A lee Forbes of Howglen. affairs, but was a kind of natural, if not legal guardian of her and her property. " And \vhaur did ye fa' -in wi' this stray lammie o' oors f " She 's been wi' me this lang time," answered Dow, declining, with Scotch instinct, to give an answer, before he understood all the drift of the question. A Scotchman would always like the last question first. " She 's some ill for rinnin' oot," said Bruce, with soft words addressed to Dow, and a cutting look flung at Annie, "withoot speirin' leave, and we dinna ken whaur she gangs ; and that 's no richt for lass-bairns." " Never ye niin' her, Mr. Bruce," replied Dow. "I ken her better nor you, no meanin' ony offence, seein' she was i' my airms afore she was a week auld. Lat her gang whaur she likes, and gin she does what she sudna do, I '11 tak a' the wyte o' 't." Xow there was no great anxiety about Annie's welfare in the mind of Mr. or Mrs. Bruce. The shop and their own children, chiefly the former, occupied their thoughts, and the less trouble they had from the presence of Annie, the better pleased they were always provided they could escape the censure of neglect. Hence it came that Annie's absences were but little inquired into. All the attention they did show her, seemed to them to be of free grace and to the credit of their charity. Alec Forbes of How glen. 195 But Bruce did not like the influence that James Dow had with her ; and before they retired for the night, he had another lecture ready for Annie. " Annie," he said, " it 's no becomin' for ane i' your station to be sae familiar. Ye '11 be a young leddy some day, and it 's no richt to tak up wi' servan's. There 's Jeames Doo, jist a labourin' man, and aneath your station a'thegether, and he taks ye up in 's airms, as gin ye war a bairn o' 's ain. It 's no proaper." " I like Jamie Doo better nor onybody i' the haill warl," said Annie, " excep' " Here she stopped short. She would not expose her heart to the gaze of that man. " Excep' wha ?" urged Bruce. " I 'm no gaein to say," returned Annie firmly. " Ye 're a camstairie (perverse) lassie," said Bruce, pushing her away with a forceful acidity in the combination of tone and push. She walked off to bed, caring nothing for his rebuke. For since Alec's kindness had opened to her a well of the water of life, she had almost ceased to suffer from the ungeniality of her guar- dians. She forgot them as soon as she was out of their sight. And certainly they were nicer to for- get than to remember. o2 196 CHAPTER XXII. AS soon as she was alone in her room, she drew from her pocket a parcel containing some- thing which Dowie had bought for her on their way home. When undone, it revealed two or three tallow candles, a precious present in view of her hopes. But how should she get a light for this was long before lucifer matches had risen even upon the horizon of Glamerton ? There was but one way. She waited, sitting on the edge of her bed, in the cold and darkness, until every sound in the house had ceased. Then she stepped cautiously down the old stair, which would crack now and then, use what care and gentleness she might. It was the custom in all the houses of Glamer- ton to rest the fire ; that is, to keep it gently alive all night by the help of a truff, or sod cut from the top of a peat-moss a coarse peat in fact, more loose and porous than the peat proper which they A lee Forbes of Howglen. , 197 laid close down upon the fire, destroying almost all remaining draught by means of coal-dust. To this sealed fountain of light the little maiden was creeping through the dark house, with one of her dips in her hand the pitcher with which she was about to draw from the fountain. And a pretty study she would have made for any child-loving artist, when, with her face close to the grate, her mouth puckered up to do duty as the nozzle of a pair of bellows, one hand holding a twisted piece of paper between the bars, and the other buttressing the whole position from the floor, she blew at the live but reluctant fire, a glow spreading at each breath over her face, and then fading as the breath ceased, till at last the paper caught, and lighting it up from without with flame, and from within with the shine of success, made the lovely child -countenance like the face of one that has found the truth after the search of weary days. Thus she lighted her candle, and again with careful steps she made her way to her own room. Setting the candle in a hole in the floor, left by the departure of a resinous knot, she opened her box, in which lay the few books her aunt had thrown into it when she left her old home. She had not yet learned to care much about books \ but one of these had now become precious in her 198 A lee Forbes of Howglen. eyes, because she knew it contained poems that her father had been fond of reading. She soon found it a volume by some Scotch poet of little fame, whose inward commotions had generated their own alleviation in the harmonies of ordered words in which they embodied themselves. In it Annie searched for something to learn before the following night, and found a ballad the look of which she liked, and which she very soon remem- bered as one she had heard her father read. It was very cold work to learn it at midnight, in win- ter, and in a garret too ; but so intent was she, that before she went to bed, she had learned four or five verses so thoroughly that she could repeat them ..without thinking of what came next, and these she kept saying over and over again even in her dreams. As soon as she woke in the dark morning, she put her hand under her pillow to feel the precious volume, which she hoped would be the bond to bind her yet more closely to the boat and its builders. She took it to school in her pocket, learning the whole way as she went, and taking a roundabout road that her cousins might not interrupt her. She kept repeating and peeping every possible moment during school hours, and then all the way home again. So that by the time she had had her din- ner, and the gauzy twilight had thickened to Alec Forbes of Howglen. 199 the " blanket of the dark," she felt quite ready to carry her offering of " the song that lightens toil," to George Macwha's workshop. How clever they must be, she thought, as she went along, to make such a beautiful thing as the boat was now growing to ! And she felt in her heart a kind of love for the look of living grace that the little craft already wore. Indeed before it was finished, she had learned to regard it with a feeling of mingled awe, affection, and admiration, and the little boat had made for itself a place in her brain. When she entered, ' she found the two boys already in busy talk; and without interrupting them by a word, she took her place on the heap of shavings which had remained undisturbed since last night. After the immediate consultation was over, and the young carpenters had settled to their work not knowing what introduction to give to her offering, she produced it without any at all. The boys did not know what to make of it at first, hearing something come all at once from Annie's lips which was neither question nor remark, and broke upon the silence like an alien sound. But they said nothing only gave a glance at each other and at her, and settled down to listen and to work. Nor did they speak one word until she had finished the ballad. 200 Alec Forbes of Howglen. "THE LAST WOOING," said Annie, all at once, and went on : " O lat me in, my bonny lass ! It 's a lang road ower the hill ; And the flauchterin' snaw began to fa', As I cam by the mill." " This is nae change-hoose, John Munro, And ye needna come nae mair : Ye crookit yer mou', and lichtlied me, Last Wednesday, at the fair." * 4 I lichtlied ye!" " Aboon the glass." " Foul-fa' the ill-faured mouth That made the leein' word to pass, By rowin' 't (wrapping) in the truth. The fac' was this : I dochtna bide To hear yer bonnie name, Whaur muckle mous war opened wide Wi' lawless mirth and shame. And a' I said was : ' Hoot ! lat sit ; She 's but a bairn, the lass.' It turned the spait (flood) o' words a bit, And loot yer fair name pass." " Thank ye for naething, John Munro ! My name can gang or bide ; It 's no a sough o' drucken words Wad turn my heid aside." Alec Forbes of Howglen. 201 " Elsie, lassie o' my ain ! The drift is cauld and strang ; O tak me in ae hour, and syne 1 11 gather me and gang." " Ye 're guid at fleechin', (wheedling) Jock Munro, For ye heedna fause and true : Gang in to Katie at the Mill, She lo'es sic like as you." He turned his fit ; he spak nae mair. The lift was like to fa' ; And Elsie's heart grew grit and sair, (big fy sore) At sicht o' the drivin' snaw. She laid her doun, but no to sleep, For her verra heart was cauld ; And the sheets war like a frozen heap O' snaw aboot her faul'd. She rase fu' ear'. And a' theroot Was ae braid windin' sheet ; At the door-sill, or winnock-lug, (window-corner) Was never a mark o' feet. She crap a' day aboot the hoose, Slow-fittit and hert-sair, Aye keekin' oot like a frichtit moose, But Johnnie cam nae mair! 202 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Whan saft the thow begud to melt Awa' the ghaistly snaw, Her hert was safter nor the thow, Her pride had ta'en a fa'. And she oot ower the hill wad gang, TVhaur the sun was blinkin' bonnie, To see his auld minnie (mother) in her cot, And speir aboot her Johnnie. But as alang the hill she gaed, Through snaw and slush and weet, She stoppit wi' a chokin' cry 'T was Johnnie at her feet. His held was smoored aneath the snaw, But his breist was maistly bare ; And 'twixt his breist and his richt han', He claisp't a lock o' hair. 'T was gowden hair : she kent it weel. Alack, the sobs and sighs ! The warm win' blew, the laverock flew, But Johnnie wadna rise. The spring cam ower the wastlin (westward) hill, And the frost it fled awa' ; And the green grass luikit smilin' up, Nane the waur for a' the snaw. Alec Forbes of How glen. 203 And saft it grew on Johnnie's grave, Whaur deep the sunshine lay ; But, lang or that, on Elsie's heid The gowden hair was grey. George Macwha, who was at work in the other end of the shop when she began, had drawn near, chisel in hand, and joined the listeners. " Weel dune, Annie !" exclaimed he, as soon as she had finished feeling very shy and awkward, now that her experiment had been made. But she had not long to wait for the result. " Say 't ower again, Annie," said Alec, after a moment's pause. Could she have wished for more I She did say it over again. " Eh, Annie ! that 's rale bonnie. Whaur did ye get it ?" he asked. " In an auld buikie o' my father's," answered she. " Is there ony mair in 't like it ?" "Ay, lots." "Jist learn anither, will ye, afore the morn's rdcht?" "I '11 do that, Alec." "Dinna ye like it, Curly?" asked Alec, for Curly had said nothing. " Ay, fegs ! (faith)" was Curly's emphatic and uncritical reply. 204 Alec Forbes of Howglen. Annie therefore learned and repeated a few more, which, if not received with equal satisfaction, yet gave sufficient pleasure to the listeners. They often, however, returned to the first, demanding it over and over again, till at length they knew it as well as she. But a check was given for a while to these fore- night meetings. 205 CHAPTEE XXIII. A RAPID thaw set in, and up through the vanishing whiteness dawned the dark colours of the wintry landscape. For a day or two, the soft wet snow lay mixed with water, over all the road. After that came .mire and dirt. But it was still 30 far off spring, that nobody cared to be reminded of it yet. So when, after the snow had vanished, a hard black frost set in, it was welcomed by the schoolboys at least, whatever the old people and the poor people, and especially those who were both old and poor, may have thought of the change. Under the binding power of this frost, the surface of the slow-flowing Glamour and of the swifter Wan-Water, were once more chilled and stiffened to ice, which every day grew thicker and stronger. And now, there being no coverlet of snow upon it, the boys came out in troops, in their iron-shod shoes and their clumsy skates, to skim along those floors of delight that the winter had laid 206 Alec Forbes of Howglen. for them. To the fishes the ice was a warm blanket cast over them to keep them from the frost. But they must have been dismayed at the dim rush of so many huge forms above them, as if another river \vith other and awful fishes had buried theirs. Alec and Willie left their boat almost for a time for- got it repaired their skates, joined their school- fellows, and shot along the solid water with the banks flying past them. It was strange to see the banks thus from the middle surface of the water. All was strange about them ; and the delight of the strangeness increased the delight of the motion, and sent the blood through their veins swift as their flight along the frozen rivers. For many afternoons and into the early nights, Alec and Curly held on the joyful sport, and An- nie was for the time left lonely. But she was neither disconsolate nor idle. The boat was a sure pledge for them. To the boat and her they must return. She went to the shop still, now and then, to see George Macwha, who, of an age beyond the seduction of ice and skates, kept on steadily at his work. To him she would repeat a ballad or two, at his request, and then go home to increase her stock. This was now a work of some difficulty, for her provision of candles was exhausted, and she had no money with which to buy more. The last candle had come to a tragical end. For, hearing Alec Forbes of Howglen. 207 steps approaching her room one morning, before she had put it away in its usual safety in her box, she hastily poked it into one of the holes in the floor, and forgot it. When she sought it at night, it was gone. Her first dread was that she had been found out ; but hearing nothing of it, she concluded at last that her enemies the rattans had carried it off and devoured it. " Deil choke them upo' the wick o' 't !" exclaimed Curly, when she told him the next day, seeking a partner in her grief. But a greater difficulty had to be encountered. It was not long before she had exhausted her book, from which she had chosen the right poems by in- sight, wonderfully avoiding by instinct the un- suitable, without knowing why, and repelled by the mere tone. She thought day and night where additional pabulum might be procured, and at last came to the resolution of applying to Mr. Cowie the clergy- man. Without consulting any one, she knocked on an afternoon at Mr. Cowie's door. " Cud I see the minister 1 ?" she said to the maid. "I dinna ken. What do you want?" was the maid's reply. But Annie was Scotch too, and perhaps per- ceived that she would have but a small chance of being admitted into the minister's presence if she 208 Alec Forbes of Howglen. communicated the object of her request to the ser- vant. So she only replied, " I want to see himsel', gin ye please." " Weel, come in, and I '11 tell him. What 's yer name ?" " Annie Anderson." " Whaur do ye bide ?" " At Mr. Bruce's, i' the Wast Wynd." The maid went, and presently returning with the message that she was to " gang up the stair," conducted her to the study where the minister sat a room, to Annie's amazement, filled with books from the top to the bottom of every wall. Mr. Cowie held out his hand to her, and said, " Well, my little maiden, what do you want?" " Please, sir, wad ye len' me a sang-buik?" " A psalm-book?" said the minister, hesitatingly, supposing he had not heard aright, and yet doubt- ing if this could be the correction of his auricular blunder. "Na, sir; I hae a psalm-buik at hame. It's a sang-buik that I want the len' o'." Now the minister was one of an old school a very worthy kind-hearted man, with nothing of what has been called religious experience. But he knew what some of his Lord's words meant, and amongst them certain words about little children He had a feeling likewise, of more instinctive Alec Forbes of Howglen. 209 origin, that to be kind to little children was an important branch of his office. So he drew Annie close to him, as he sat in his easy chair, laid his plump cheek against her thin white one, and said in the gentlest way: " And what do you want a song-book for, dawtie?" " To learn bonnie sangs oot o', sir. Dirina ye think they 're the bonniest things in a' the waiT, sangs, sir?" For Annie had by this time learned to love ballad-verse above everything but Alec and Dowie. " And what kind o' sangs do ye like?" the clergyman asked, instead of replying. " I like them best that gar ye greit, sir." At every answer, she looked up in his face with her open clear blue eyes. And the minister began to love her not merely because she was a child, but because she was this child. "Do ye sing them?" he asked, after a little pause of pleased gazing into the face of the child. "Na, na; I only say them. I dinna ken the tunes o' them." " And do you say them to Mr. Bruce?" "Mr. Bruce, sir! Mr. Bruce wad say I was daft. I wadna say a sang to him, sir, for for for a' the sweeties i' the shop." " Well, who do you say them to?" VOL. I. - P 210 Alec Forbes of Howglen. " To Alec Forbes and Willie Macwha. They 're biggin a boat, sir; and they like to hae me by them, as they big, to say sangs to them. And I like it richt weel." " It '11 be a lucky boat, surely," said the minister, "to rise to the sound of rhyme, like some oldXorse war-ship." "I clinna ken, sir," said Annie, who certainly did not know what he meant. Now the minister's acquaintance with any but the classic poets was very small indeed ; so that, when he got up and stood before his bookshelves, with the design of trying what he could do for , her, he could think of nobody but Milton. So he brought the Paradise Lost from its place, where it had not been disturbed for years, and placing it before her on the table, for it was a quarto copy, asked her if that would do. She opened it slowly and gently, with a reverential circumspection, and for the space of about five minutes, remained silent over it, turning leaves, and tasting, and turning, and tasting again. At length, with one hand resting on the book, she turned to Mr. Cowie, who was watching with much interest and a little anxiety the result of the ex- periment, and said gently and sorrowfully: " I clinna think this is the richt buik for me, sir. There's nae sang in't that I can fin' oot. It Alec Forbes of Howglen. 211 gangs a' straucht on, and never turns or halts a bit. Noo ye see, sir, a sang aye turns roun', and begins again, and afore lang it comes fairly to an en', jist like a day, sir, whan we gang to oor beds an' fa' asleep. But this hauds on and on, and there 's no end till 't ava (at all). It 's jist like the sun that ' never tires nor stops to rest.' " " ( But round the world he shines,' " said the clergyman, completing the quotation, right good- humouredly, though he was somewhat bewildered; for he had begun to fall a-marvelling at the little dingy maiden, with the untidy hair and dirty frock, who had thoughts of her own, and would not concede the faculty of song to the greatest of epic poets. Doubtless if he had tried her with some of the short poems at the end of the Paradise Regained, which I doubt if lie had ever even read, she would at least have allowed that they were not de- void of song. But it was better perhaps that she should be left free to follow her own instincts. The true teacher is the one who is able to guide those instincts, strengthen them with authority, and illuminate them with revelation of their own fun- damental truth. The best this good minister could do, was not to interfere with them. He was so anxious to help her, however, tha/, partly to gain some minutes for reflection, partly to get the as- P2 212 Alec Forbes of How glen. sistance of his daughters, he took her by the hand, and led her to the dining-room, where tea was laid for himself and his two grown-up girls. She went without a thought .of question or a feeling of doubt ; for however capable she was of ordering her own way, nothing delighted her more than blind submission, wherever she felt justified in yielding it. It was a profound pleasure to her not to know what was coming next, provided some one whom she loved did. So she sat down to tea with the perfect composure of submission to a superior will. It never occurred to her that she had no right to be there ; for had not the minister himself led her there? And his daughters were very kind and friendly. In the course of the meal, Mr. Cowie having told them the difficulty he was in, they said that perhaps they might be able to find what she wanted, or something that might take the place of it ; and after tea, one of them brought two volumes of ballads of all sorts, some old, some new, some Scotch, some English, and put them into Annie's hands, asking her if that book would do. The child eagerly opened one of the volumes, and glanced at a page : It sparkled with the right ore of ballad-words. The Red, the colour always of delight, grew in her face. She closed the book as if she could not trust herself to look at it while others were looking at her, and said with a sigh : Alec Forbes of Hoivglen. 213 " Eh, mem ! Ye wonna lippen them baith to me?" " Yes, I will," said Miss Cowie. " I am sure you will take care of them." " That / will" returned Annie, with an honesty and determination of purpose that made a great impression upon Mr. Cowie especially. And she ran home with a feeling of richness of possession such as she had never before experienced. Her first business was to scamper up to her room, and hide the precious treasures in her kist, there to wait all night, like the buried dead, for the coming morning. When she confessed to Mr. Bruce that she had had tea with the minister, he held up his hands in the manner which commonly expresses amaze- ment ; but what the peculiar character or ground of the amazement might be, remained entirely un- revealed, for he said not a word to elucidate the gesture. The next time Annie went to see the minister, it was on a very different quest from the loan of a song-book. 214 CHAPTER XXIV. ONE afternoon, as Alec went home to dinner, he was considerably surprised to find Mr. Malison leaning on one of the rails of the foot- bridge over the Glamour, looking down upon its frozen surface. There was nothing supernatural or alarming in this, seeing that, after school was over, Alec had run up the town to the saddler's, to get a new strap for one of his skates. What made the fact surprising was, that the scholars so seldom encountered the master anywhere except in school. Alec thought to pass, but, the moment his foot was on the bridge, the master lifted him- self up, and faced round. " Well, Alec," he said, " where have you been ?" "To get a new strap for my skatcher," an- swered Alec. " You 're fond of skating are you, Alec ?" "Yes, sir." Alec Forbes of Hou-glen. 215 " I used to be when I was a boy. Have you had your dinner ?" " No, sir." " Then I suppose your mother has not dined, either !" " She never does till I go home, sir." " Then I won't intrude upon her. I did mean to call this afternoon." " She will be very glad to see you, sir. Come and take a share of what there is." " I think I had better not, Alec." " Do, sir. I am sure she will make you wel- come." Mr. Malison hesitated. Alec pressed him. He yielded ; and they went along the road together. I shall not have to show much more than half of Mr. Malison's life the school half, which, both in- wardly and outwardly, was very different from the other. The moment he was out of the school, the moment, that is, that he ceased for the day to be responsible for the moral and intellectual condition of his turbulent subjects, the whole character certainly the whole deportment of the man changed. He was now as meek and gentle in speech and behaviour as any mother could have desired. Nor was the change a hypocritical one. The master never interfered, or only upon the rarest occasions when pressure from without was brought 216 Alec Forbes of Howglen. to bear upon him, as in the case of Juno, with what the boys did out of school. He was glad enough to accept utter irresponsibility for that portion of his time ; so that between the two parts of the day, as they passed through the life of the master, there was almost as little connection as between the waking and sleeping hours of a somnambulist. But, as he leaned over the rail of the bridge, whither a rare impulse to movement had driven him, his thoughts had turned upon Alec Forbes and his antagonism. Out of school, he could not help feeling that the boy had not been very far wrong, however subversive of authority his be- haviour had been; but it was not therefore the less mortifying to think how signally he had been discomfited by him. And he was compelled more- over to acknowledge to himself that it was a mercy that Alec was not the boy to follow up his advan- tage by heading not a party against the master, but the whole school, which would have been ready enough to follow such a victorious leader. So there was but one way of setting matters right, as Mr. Malison had generosity enough left in him to per- ceive ; and that was, to make a friend of his adversary. Indeed there is that in the depths of every human breast which makes a reconciliation the only victory that can give true satisfaction. Nor was the master the only gainer by the resolve Alec Forbes of Howglen. 217 which thus arose in his mind the very moment be- fore he felt Alec's tread upon the bridge. They walked together to Howglen, talking kindly the whole way ; to which talk, and most likely to which kindness between them, a little in- cident had contributed as well. Alec had that day rendered a passage of Virgil with a remarkable ac- curacy, greatly pleasing to the master, who, however, had no idea to what this isolated success was attri- butable. I forget the passage ; but it had reference to the setting of sails, and Alec could not rest till he had satisfied himself about its meaning ; for when we are once interested in anything, we want to see it nearer as often as it looms in sight. So he had with some difficulty cleared away the mists that clung about the words, till at length he beheld and understood the fact embodied in them. Alec had never had praise from Mr. Malison before at least none that had ma.de any impres- sion on him and he found it very sweet. And through the pleasure dawned the notion that perhaps he might be a scholar after all if he gave his mind to it. In this he was so far right : a fair scholar he might be, though a learned man he never could be, without developing an amount of will, and effecting a degree of self-conquest, sufficient for a Jesuit, losing at the same time not only what he was especially made for knowing, but, in a great 218 Alec Forbes of Howylen. jneasure, what he was especially made for being. Few, however, are in danger of going so grievously against the intellectual impulses of their nature : far more are in danger of following them without earnestness, or if earnestly, then with the absorp- tion of an eagerness only worldly. Mrs. Forbes, seeing the pleasure expressed on Alec's countenance, received Mr. Malison with more than the usual cordiality, forgetting when he was present before her eyes what she had never failed to think of with bitterness when he was only present to her mind. As soon as dinner was over, Alec rushed off to the river, leaving his mother and the master together. Mrs. Forbes brought out the whisky-bottle, and Mr. Malison, mixing a tumbler of toddv, filled a wine- O / / glass for his hostess. " We '11 make a man of Alec some day yet," said he, giving an ill-considered form to his thoughts. " 'Deed !" returned Mrs. Forbes, irritated at the suggestion of any difficulty in the way of Alec's ultimate manhood, and perhaps glad of the oppor- tunity of speaking her mind " 'Deed ! Mr. Mali- son, ye made a bonnie munsie (monsieur) o' him a month ago. It wad set ye weel to try yer hand at makin' a man o' him noo." Had Alec been within hearing, he would never A lee Forbes of Howglen. 219 have let his mother forget this speech. For ha4 not she, the immaculate, the reprover, fallen herself* into the slough of the vernacular? The fact is, it is easier to speak the truth in a patois, for it lies nearer to the simple realities than a more con- ventional speech. I do not however allow that the Scotch is a patois in the ordinary sense of the word. For had not Scotland a living literature, and that a high one, when England could produce none, or next to none I mean in the fifteenth century? But old age, and the introduction of a more polished form of utterance, have given to the Scotch all the other advantages of a patois, in addition to its own directness and simplicity. For a moment the dominie was taken aback, and sat reddening over his toddy, which, not daring even to taste it, he went on stirring with his toddy- ladle. For one of the disadvantages of a broken life is, that what a person may do with a kind of con- science in the one part, he feels compelled to blush for in the other. The despotism exercised in the school, even though exercised with a certain sense of justice and right, made the autocrat, out of school, cower before the parents of his helpless subjects. And this quailing of heart arose not merely from the operation of selfish feelings, but from a deliquium that fell upon his principles, 220 Alec Forbes of Howglen. in consequence of their sudden exposure to a more open atmosphere. But with a sudden perception that his only chance was to throw himself on the generosity of a woman, he said : sl Well, ma'am, if you had to keep seventy boys and girls quiet, and hear them their lessons at the same time, perhaps you would find yourself in danger of doing in haste what you might repent at leisure." " Weel, weel, Mr. Malison, we '11 say nae mair aboot it. My laddie 's nane the waur for 't noo ; and I hope ye will inak a man o' him some day, as ye say." " He translated a passage of Virgil to-day in a manner that surprised me." " Did he though ? He 's not a dunce, I know ; and if it were n't for that stupid boat he and William Macwha are building, he might be made a scholar of, I should n't wonder. George should have more sense than encourage such a waste of time and money. He 's always wanting something or other for the boat, and I confess I can 't find in my heart to refuse him, for, whatever he may be at school, he 's a good boy at home, Mr. Malison." But the schoolmaster did not reply at once, for a light had dawned upon him : this then was the secret of Alec's translation a secret in good sooth worth his finding out. One can hardly believe that Alec Forbes of Howglen. 221 it should have been to the schoolmaster the first revelation of the fact that a practical interest is the strongest incitement to a theoretical acquaintance. But such was the case. He answered after a mo- ment's pause "I suspect, ma'am, on the contrary, that the boat, of which I had heard nothing till now, was Alec's private tutor in the passage of Virgil to which I have referred." " I do n't understand you, Mr. Malison." "I mean, ma'am, that his interest in his boat made him take an interest in those lines about ships and their rigging. So the boat taught him to translate them." " I see, I see." " And that makes me doubt, ma'am, whether we shall be able to make him learn anything to good purpose that he does not take an interest in." "Well, what do you think he is fit for, Mr. Malison ? I should like him to be able to be something else than a farmer, whatever he may settle down to at last." Mrs.Forbes thought, whether wisely or not, that as long as she was able to manage the farm, Alec might as well be otherwise employed. And she had ambition for her son as well. But the master was able to make no definite suggestion. Alec seemed to have no special qualification for any profession; 222 Akc Forbes of How glen. for the mechanical and constructive faculties had alone reached a notable development in him as yet. So after a long talk, his mother and the schoolmaster had come no nearer than before to a determination of what he was fit for. The inter- view, however, restored a good understanding between them. 223 CHAPTER XXV. IT was upon a Friday night that the frost finally broke up. A day of wintry rain followed, dreary and depressing. But the two boys, Alec Forbes and Willie Macwha, had a refuge from the ennui commonly attendant on such weather, in the prosecution of their boat-building. Hence it came to pass that in the early evening of the following Saturday, they found themselves in close consulta- tion in George Macvvha's shop, upon a doubtful point involved in the resumption of their labour. But they could not settle the matter without refer- ence to the master of the mystery, George him- self, and were, in the meantime, busy getting their tools in order when he entered, in conversation with Thomas Crann the mason, who, his bodily labours being quite interrupted by the rain, had the more leisure apparently to bring his mental powers to bear upon the condition of his neigh- bours. 22 i Alec Forbes of How glen. "It's a sod pity, George," he was saying as he entered, " that a man like you wadna, ance for a', tak thoucht a bit, and consider the en' o' a' thing that the sun shines upo'." "Hoo do ye ken, Thamas, that I dinna tak thoucht r " Will ye say 'at ye div tak thoucht, George ?" " I 'm a bit o' a Protestant, though I 'm nae mis- sionar ; an' I 'm no inclined to confess, Thamas meanin' no ill-will to you for a' that, ye ken," added George, in a conciliatory tone. " Weel, weel. I can only say that I hae seen no signs o' a savin' seriousness aboot ye, George. Ye 're sairta'en up wi' the warl'." '^Hoo mak' ye that oot? Ye big nooses, an' 1 mak' doors to them. And they '11 baith stan' efter you an' me 's laid i' the mouls. It 's weel kent forbye that ye hae a bit siller i' the bank, and I hae none." "Not a bawbee hae I, George. I can pray for my daily breid wi' an honest hert ; for gin the Lord dinna sen' 't, I hae nae bank to fa' back upo'." " I 'm sorry to hear 't, Thamas," said George. " But Guid guide 's !" he exclaimed, " there 's the twa laddies, hearkenin' to ilka word 'at we say !" He hoped thus, but hoped in vain, to turn the current of the conversation. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 225 "A' the better for that!" persisted Thomas. "They need to be remin't as well as you and me, that the fashion o' this warld passeth away. Alec, man, Willie, my lad, can ye big a boat to tak' ye ower the river o' Deith ? Na, ye '11 no can do that. Ye maun gae through that watshod, I doobt ! But there's an ark o' the Covenant that'll carry ye safe ower that and a waur flood to boot and that's the flood o' God's wrath against all evil- doers. ' Upon the wicked he shall rain fire and brimstone a furious tempest.' We had a gran' sermon upo' the ark o' the Covenant frae young Mr. Mirky last Sabbath nicht. What for will na ye come and hear the Gospel for ance and awa' at least, George Macwha? Ye can sit i' my seat." " I 'm obleeged to ye," answered George ; " but the muckle kirk does weel eneuch for me. And ye ken I 'm precentor, noo, forbye." " The muckle kirk !" repeated Thomas, in a tone of contempt. "What get ye there but the dry banes o' morality, upo' which the win' o' the word has never blawn to pit life into the puir disjaskit skele- ton. Come ye to oor kirk, an' ye '11 get a rousin', I can tell ye, man. Eh ! man, gin ye war ance convertit, ye wad ken hoo to sing. It 's no great singin' 'at ye guide." Before the conversation had reached this point, VOL. I. Q 226 Alec Forbes of How glen. another listener had arrived : the blue eyes of Annie Anderson were fixed upon the speaker from over the half door of the workshop. The drip from the thatch-eaves was dropping upon her shabby little shawl as she stood, but she was utterly heedless of it in the absorption of hearkening to Thomas Crann, who talked with authority, and a kind of hard eloquence of persuasion. I ought to explain here that the muckle kirk meant the parish church ; and that the religious community to which Thomas Crann belonged was one of the first results of the propagation of English Independency in Scotland. These Inde- pendents went commonly by the name of Missionars in all that district ; a name arising apparently fromthe fact that they were the first in the neigh- bourhood to advocate the sending of missionaries to the heathen. The epithet was, however, always used with a considerable admixture of contempt. " Are ye no gaein to get a minister o' yer ain, Thamasf resumed George, after a pause, still wishing to turn the cart-wheels of the conversation out of the deep ruts in which the stiff-necked Thomas seemed determined to keep them moving. " Xa; we '11 bide a bit,and try the speerits. We're no like you forced to lat ower (swallow) ony jabble o' lukewarm water that 's been stan'in' i' the sun frae year's en' to year's en', jist because the patron A lee Forbes of Howgkn. 227 pleases to stick a pump intil 't an' ca' 't a well o' salvation. We '11 ken whaur the water comes frae. We '11 taste them a', and cheese accordin'." " Weel, I wadna like the trouble nor yet the responsibility." " I daursay not." "Na. Nor yet the shame o' pretennin' to jeedge my betters," added George, now a little nettled, as was generally the result at last of Thomas's sarcastic tone. " George," said Thomas solemnly, " nane but them that has the speerit can ken the speerit." With these words, he turned and strode slowly and gloomily out of the shop no doubt from dissatisfaction with the result, of his attempt. Who does not see that Thomas had a hold of something to which George was altogether a stranger ? Surely it is something more to stand with Moses upon Mount Sinai, and see the back of God through ever so many folds of cloudy dark- ness, than be sitting down to eat and drink, or rising up to play about the golden calf, at the foot of the mountain. And that Thomas was possessed of some divine secret, the heart of child Annie was perfectly convinced; the tone of his utterance having a greater share in producing this conviction than anything he had said. As he passed out, she looked up reverently at him, as one to whom deep Q2 228 Alec Forbes of Howglen. things lay open. Thomas had a kind of gruff gentleness towards children which they found very attractive; and this meek maiden he could not threaten with the vials of wrath. He laid his hard heavy hand kindly on her head, saying: " Ye '11 be ane o' the Lord's lambs, will ye no ? Ye '11 gang into the fold ef ter him, will ye no ?" " Ay will I," answered Annie, " gin He '11 lat in Alec and Curly too." 11 Ye maun mak nae bargains wi' him ; but gin they '11 gang in, he '11 no haud them oot." And away, somewhat comforted, the honest stonemason strode, through the darkness and the rain, to his own rather cheerless home, where he had neither wife nor child to welcome him. An elderly woman took care of his house, whose habitual at- titude towards him was one half of awe and half of resistance. The moment he entered, she left the room where she had been sitting, without a word of welcome, and betook herself to the kitchen, where she prepared his plate of porridge or bowl of brose. With this in one hand, and a jug of milk in the other, she soon returned, placing them like a peace-offering on the table before him. Having completed the arrangement by the addition of a horn spoon from a cupboard in the wall, she again retired in silence. The moment she vanished, Thomas's blue bonnet was thrown into a corner, Alec Forbes of Howglen. 229 and with folded hands and bent head he prayed a silent prayer over his homely meal. By this time Alec and Curly, having received sufficient instruction from George Macwha, were in full swing with their boat-building. But the mo- ment Thomas went, Alec had taken Annie to the forge to get her well dried, before he would allow her to occupy her old place in the heap of spales. " Wha 's preachin' at the missionar-kirk the morn, Willie f asked the boy's father. For Willie knew everything that took place in Glamer- ton. "Mr. Broon," answered Curly. " He 's a guid man that, ony gait," returned his father. " There 's nae mony like him. I think I '11 turn missionar mysel', for ance and awa', and gang and hear him the morn's nicht." At the same instant, Annie entered the shop, her face glowing with the heat of the forge and the pleasure of rejoining her friends. Her appear- ance turned the current, and no more was said about the missionar kirk. Many minutes did not pass before she had begun to repeat to the eager listeners one of the two new poems which she had got ready for them from the book Miss Cowie had lent her. 230 CHAPTER XXVI. WHATEVER effect the remonstrances of Thomas might or might not have upon the rest, Annie had heard enough to make her want to go to the missionar kirk. For was it not plain that Thomas Crann knew something that she did not know? and where could he have learned it but at the said kirk? There must be something going on there worth looking into. Per- haps there she might learn just what she needed to know ; for, happy as she was, she would have been much happier, had it not been for a something she could neither describe nor understand it which always rose between her and the happiness. She did not lay the blame on circumstances, though they might well, in her case, have borne a part of it. Whatever was, to her was right; and she never dreamed of rebelling against her position. For she was one of those simple creatures who perceive at once that if they are Alec Forbes of Howglen. 231 to set anything right for themselves or other people, they must begin with their own selves, their inward being and life. So without knowing that George Macwha intended to be there, with no expectation of seeing Alec or Curly, and with- out having consulted any of the Bruce family, she found herself, a few minutes after the service had commenced, timidly peering through the inner door of the chapel, and starting back, with mingled shyness and awe, from the wide solemnity of the place. Every eye seemed to have darted upon her the moment she made a chink of light between the door and its post. How spiritually does every child-nature feel the solemnity of the place where people, of whatever belief or whatever intellectual rank, meet to worship God ! The air of the temple belongs to the poorest meeting-room as much as to the grandest cathedral. And what added to the effect on Annie was, that the reputation of Mr. Brown having drawn a great congregation to hear him preach that evening, she, peeping through the door, saw nothing but live faces; whereas Mr. Cowie's church, to which she was in the habit of going, though much larger, was only so much the more empty. She withdrew in dismay to go up into the gallery, where, entering from behind, she would see fewer faces, and might creep unperceived into the shelter of a pew ; for 232 Alec Forbes of Howglen. she felt " little better than one of the wicked" in having arrived late. So she stole up the awful stair and into the wide gallery, as a chidden dog might steal across the room to creep under the master's table. Not daring to look up, she went with noiseless difficulty 'down a steep step or two, and perched herself timidly on the edge of a seat, beside an old lady, who had kindly made room for her. When she ventured to lift her eyes, she found herself in the middle of a sea of heads. But she saw in the same glance that no one was taking any notice of her, which discovery acted wonder- fully as a restorative. The minister was reading, in a solemn voice, a terrible chapter of denuncia- tion out of the prophet Isaiah ; and Annie was soon seized with a deep listening awe. The severity of the chapter was, however, considerably mollified by the gentleness of the old lady, who put into her hand a bible, smelling sweetly of dried starry leaves and southernwood, in which Annie followed the reading word for word, feeling sadly condemned if she happened to allow her eyes to wander for a single moment from the book. After the long prayer, during which they all stood a posture certainly more reverential than the sitting which so commonly passes for kneeling and the long psalm, during which they all sat, the sermon began ; and again for a moment Annie ventured Alec Forbes of Howgleh. 233 to look up, feeling protected from behind by the back of the pew, which reached high above her head. Before her she saw no face but that of the minister, between which and her, beyond the front of the gallery, lay a gulfy space, where, down in the bottom, sat other listening souls, with upturned faces and eyes, unseen of Annie, all their regards converging upon the countenance of the minister. He was a thin-faced cadaverous man, with a self-severe saintly look, one to whom religion was clearly a reality, though not so clearly a gladness, one whose opinions vague half mon- strous embodiments of truth helped to give him a consciousness of the life which sprung from a source far deeper than his consciousness could reach. I wonder if one will ever be able to under- stand the worship of his childhood that revering upward look which must have been founded on a reality, however much after experience may have shown the supposed grounds of reverence to be untenable. The moment Annie looked in the face of Mr. Brown, she submitted absolutely ; she enshrined him and worshipped him with an awful reverence. Nor to the end of her days did she lose this feeling towards him. True, she came to see that he was a man of ordinary stature, and that some of the religious views which he held in common with his brethren, were dishonouring of 234 A lee Forbes of Howglen. God, and therefore could not be elevating to the creature. But when she saw these and other like facts, they gave her no shock they left the reflex of the man in her mind still unspotted, unimpaired. How could this be? Simply because they left unaltered the conviction that this man believed in God, and that the desire of his own heart brought him into some real, however undefinable, relation to him who was yet nearer to him than that desire itself, and whose presence had caused its birth. He chose for his text these words of the Psalmist : " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." His sermon was less ponderous in construction and multitudi- nous in division than usual; for it consisted simply of answers to the two questions : " Who are the wicked ?" and " What is their fate ?" The answer to the former question was : " The wicked are those that forget God ;" the answer to the latter : " The torments of everlasting fire." Upon Annie the sermon produced the immediate conviction that she was one of the wicked, and that she was in danger of hell-fire. The distress generated by the earlier part of the sermon, however, like that occasioned by the chapter of prophecy, was considerably mitigated by the kindness of an unknown hand, which, appearing occasionally over her shoulder from behind, kept up a counteractive ministration of Alec Forbes of Howglen. 235 peppermint .lozenges. But the representations grew so much in horror as the sermon approached its end, that, when at last it was over, and Annie drew one long breath of exhaustion, hardly of relief, she became aware that the peppermint lozenge which had been given her a quarter of an hour before, was lying still undissolved in her mouth. What had added considerably to the effect of the preacher's words, was that, in the middle of the ser- mon, she had, all at once, caught sight of the face of George Macwha diagonally opposite to her, his eyes looking like ears with the intensity of his listening. Nor did the rather comical episode of the snuffing of the candles in the least interfere with the solemnity of the tragic whole. The gal- lery was lighted by three coronae of tallow candles, which, persisting in growing long-nosed and dim- sighted, had, at varying periods, according as the necessity revealed itself to a ' certain half-witted individual of the congregation, to be snodded laboriously. Without losing a word tuat the preacher uttered,. Annie watched the process in- tently. What made it ludicrous was, that the man, having taken up his weapon with the air of a pious executioner, and having tipped the chandelier towards him, began, from the operation of some occult sympathy, to open the snuffers and his own mouth simultaneously ; and by the time the black 236 Alec Forbes of Howglen. devouring jaws of the snuffers had reached their full stretch, his own jaws had become something dragonlike and hideous to behold when both shut with a convulsive snap. Add to this that he was long-sighted and often missed a candle several times before he succeeded in snuffing it, whereupon the whole of the opening and shutting process had to be repeated, sometimes with no other result than that of snuffing the candle out, which had then to be pulled from its socket and applied to the next for re-illumination. But nothing could be farther from Annie's mood than a laugh or even a smile, though she gazed as if she were fascinated by the snuffers, which were dreadfully like one of the demons in a wood-cut of the Valley of the Shadow of Death in the Pilgrim's Progress without boards, which had belonged to her father. When all had ceased when the pray er,the singing, and the final benediction were over, Annie crept out into the dark street as if into the Outer Darkness. She felt the rain falling upon something hot, but she hardly knew that it was her own cheeks that were being wetted by the heavy drops. Her first impulse was to run to Alec and Curly, put her arms about their necks, and entreat them to flee from the wrath to come. But she could not find them to-night. She must go home. For herself she was not much afraid; for there was. a place Alec Forbes of Howglen. 237 where prayer was heard as certainly as at the mercy-seat of old a little garret room namely, with holes in the floor, out of which came rats ; but with a door as well, in at which came the prayed-for cat. But alas for poor Annie and her chapel-going ! As she was creeping slowly up from step to step in the dark, the feeling came over her that it was no longer against rats, nor yet against evil things dwelling in the holes and corners of a neglected human world, that she had to pray. A spiritual terror was seated on the throne of the universe, and was called God and to whom should she pray against it ? Amidst the darkness, a deeper dark- ness fell. She knelt by her bedside, but she could not lift up her heart ; for was she not one of them that forget God? and was she not therefore wicked? and was not God angry with her every day? Was not the fact that she could not pray, a certain proof that she was out of God's favour, and counted un- worthy of his notice ? But there was Jesus Christ : she would cry to him. But did she believe in him ? She tried hard to convince herself that she did ; but at last she laid her weary head on the bed, and groaned in her young despair. At the moment, a rustling in the darkness broke the sad silence with a throb of 238 Alec Forbes of Howglen. terror. She started to her feet. She was ex- posed to all the rats in the universe now, for God was angry with her, and she could not pray. With a stifled scream she darted to the door, and half tumbled down the stair in an agony of fear. " What gars ye mak sic a din i' the hoose o' the Sawbath nicht ? " screamed Mrs. Bruce. But little did Annie feel the reproof. And as little did she know that the dreaded rats had this time been the messengers of God to drive her from a path in which lies madness. She was forced at length to go to bed, where God made her sleep and forget him, and the rats did not come near her again that night. Curly and Alec had been in the chapel too, but they were not of a temperament to be disturbed by Mr. Brown's discourse. 239 CHAPTER XXVII. T ITTLE as Murdoch Malison knew of the JJ worlds of thought and feeling Annie's among the rest which lay within those young faces and forms assembled the next day as usual, he knew almost as little of the mysteries that lay within himself. Annie was haunted all day with the thought of the wrath of God. When she forgot it for a mo- ment, it would return again with a sting of actual physical pain, which seemed to pierce her heart. Before school was over, she had made up her mind what to do. And before school was over, Malison's own deed had opened his own eyes, had broken through the crust that lay between him and the vision of his own character. There is not to be found a more thorough impersonation of his own theology than a Scotch schoolmaster of the rough old-fashioned type. His 240 Alec Forbes of Howglen. pleasure was law, irrespective of right or wrong, and the reward of submission to law was im- munity from punishment. He had his favour- ites in various degrees, whom he chose according to inexplicable directions of feeling ratified by " the freedom of his own will." These found it easy to please him, while those with whom he was not primarily pleased, found it impossible to please him. Now there had come to the school, about a fortnight before, two unhappy-looking little twin orphans, with white thin faces, and bones in their clothes instead of legs and arms, committed to the mercies of Mr. Malison by their grandfather. Bent into all the angles of a grasshopper, and lean with ancient poverty, the old man tottered away with his stick in one hand, stretched far out to support his stooping frame, and carried in the other the caps of the two forsaken urchins, saying, as he went, in a quavering, croaking voice, " I '11 jist tak them wi' me, or they '11 no be fit for the Sawbath aboon a fortnicht. They 're terri- ble laddies to blaud (spoil) their claes ! " Turning with difficulty when he had reached the door, he added : " Xoo ye jist gie them their whups weel, Maister Mailison, for ye ken that he that spareth the rod, blaudeth the bairn/' Thus authorized, Malison certainly did "gie Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. 241 them their wimps weel." Before the day was over, they had both lain shrieking on the floor under the. torture of the lash. And such poor half-clothed, half- fed creatures they were, and looked so pitiful and cowed, that one cannot help thinking it must have been for his own glory rather than their good that he treated them thus. But, in justice to Malison, another fact must be mentioned, which, although inconsistent with the one just recorded, was in perfect consistency with the theological subsoil whence both sprang. After about a week, during which they had been whipt almost every day, the orphans came to school with a cold and a terrible cough. Then his observant pupils saw the man who was both cruel judge and cruel executioner, feeding his victims with liquorice till their faces were stained with its exuberance. The old habits of severity, which had been in some measure intermitted, had returned upon him with gathered strength, and this day Annie was to be one of the victims. For although he would not dare to whip her, he was about to incur the shame of making this day, pervaded as it was, through all its spaces of time and light, with the fumes of the sermon she had heard the night before, the most wretched day that Annie's sad life had yet seen. In- deed, although she afterwards passed many more sorrowful days, she never had to pass one so utterly VOL. I. R 242 Alec Forbes of Howglen. miserable. The spirits of the pit seemed to have broken loose and filled Murdoch Malison's school- room with the stench of their fire and brimstone. As she sat longing for school to be over, that she might follow a plan which had a glimmer of hope in it, stupefied with her labouring thoughts, and overcome with wretchedness, she fell fast asleep. She was roused by a smart blow from the taws, flung with unerring aim at the back of her bare bended neck. She sprang up with a cry, and, tot- tering between sleep and terror, proceeded at once to take the leather snake back to the master. But she would have fallen in getting over the form had not Alec caught her in his arms. He re-seated her, and taking the taws from hertrembling hand, carried it himself to the tyrant. Upon him Malison's fury, breaking loose, expended itself in a dozen blows on the right hand, which Alec held up without flinching. As he walked to 'his seat, burning with pain, the voice of the master sounded behind him ; but with the decree it uttered, Alec did not feel himself at liberty to interfere. t( Ann Anderson," he bawled, " stand up on the .seat," With trembling limbs, Annie obeyed. She could scarcely stand at first, and the form shook beneath her. For some time her colour kept alternating between crimson and white, but at last settled into Alec Forbes of Howglen. 243 a deadly pallor. Indeed, it was to her a terrible punishment to be exposed to the looks of all the boys and girls in the school. The elder Bruce tried hard to make her see one of his vile grimaces, but, feeling as if every nerve in her body were being stung with eyes, she never dared to look away from the book which she held upside down before her own sightless eyes. This pillory was the pun- ishment due to falling asleep, as hell was the pun- ishment for forgetting God ; and there she had to stand for a whole hour. " What a shame ! Damn that Malison /" and various other subdued exclamations were murmured about the room ; for Annie was a favourite with most of the boys, and yet more because she was the General's sweetheart, as they said ; but these ebul- litions of popular feeling were too faint to reach her ears and comfort her isolation and exposure. Worst of all, she had soon to behold, with every advantage of position, an outbreak of the master's temper, far more painful than she had yet seen, both from its cruelty and its consequences. A small class of mere children, amongst whom were the orphan Truffeys, had been committed to the care of one of the bigger boys, while the master was engaged with another class. Every boy in the latter had already had his share ofpa?idies, when a noise in the children's class attracting the master s R 2 244 Alec Forbes of Ho n'fjlen. attention, he saw one of the Truffeys hit another boy in the face. He strode upon him at once, and putting no question as to provocation, took him by the neck, fixed it between his knees, and began to lash him with hissing blows. In his agony, the little fellow contrived to twist his head about and get a mouthful of the master's leg, inserting his teeth in a most canine and praiseworthy manner. The master caught him up, and dashed him on the floor. There the child lay motionless. Alarmed, and consequently cooled, Malison proceeded to lift him. He was apparently lifeless ; but he had only fainted with pain. When he came to himself a little, it was found that his leg was hurt. It ap- peared afterwards that the knee-cap was greatly injured. Moaning with pain, he was sent home on the back of a big parish scholar. At all this Annie stared from her pillory with horror. The feeling that God was angry with her grew upon her ; and Murdoch Malison became for a time inseparably associated with her idea of God, frightfully bewildering all her aspirations. The master still looked uneasy, threw the tag into his desk, and beat no one more that day. Indeed, only half an hour of schooltinie was left. As soon as that was over, he set off at a swing- ing pace for the old grandfather's cottage. What passed there was never known. The other Alec Forbes of Howglen. 245 Truffey came to school the next day as usual, and told the boys that his brother was in bed. In that bed he lay for many weeks, and many were the visits the master paid him. This did much with the townsfolk to wipe away his reproach. They spoke of the affair as an unfortunate accident, and pitied the schoolmaster even more than the sufferer- When at length the poor boy was able to leave his bed, it became apparent that, either through unskilful treatment, or as the unavoidable result of the injury, he would be a cripple for life. The master's general behaviour was certainly modified by this consequence of his fury ; but it was some time before the full reaction arrived. 246 CHAPTER XXVIII. WHEN Annie descended from her hateful eminence, just before the final prayer, it was with a deeper sense of degradation than any violence of the tawse on her poor little hands could have produced. Nor could the attentions of Alec, anxiously offered as soon as they were out of school, reach half so far to console her as they might once have reached ; for such was her sense of condemnation, that she dared not take pleasure in anything. Nothing else was worth minding till something was done about that. The thought of having God against her took the heart out of everything. As soon as Alec left her, she walked with hanging head, pale face, and mournful eyes, straight to Mr. Cowie's door. She was admitted at once, and shown into the library, where the clergyman sat in the red dusky glow of the firelight, sipping a glass of wine, and looking very much like an ox-animal chewing the Alec Forbes of How glen. 247 cud ; for the meditation in which the good man indulged over his wine was seldom worthy of being characterized otherwise than as mental rumination. ""Well, Annie, my dear, come away," said he, " I am glad to see you. How does the boat get onf Deeply touched by a kindness which fell like dew upon the parching misery of the day, Annie burst into tears. Mr. Cowie was greatly dis- tressed. He drew her between his knees, laid his cheek against hers, as was his way with children, and said with soothing tenderness : " Walawa ! what 's the matter with my dawtiet" After some vain attempts at speech, Annie suc- ceeded in giving the following account of the matter, much interrupted with sobs and fresh out- bursts of weeping. " Ye see, sir, I gaed last nicht to the missionar kirk to hear Mr. Broon. And he preached a gran' sermon, sir. But I haena been able to bide mysel' sin' syne. For I doobt I 'm ane o' the wicked 'at God hates, and I '11 never win' to haven at a', for I canna help forgettin' him whiles. An' the wicked '11 be turned into hell, and a' the nations that forget God. That was his text, sir. And I canna bide it." In the bosom of the good man rose a gentle in- dignation against the schismatics who had thus 248 Alec Forbes of Howglen. terrified and bewildered that sacred being, a maid- child. But what could he say ? He thought for a moment, and betook himself, in his perplexity, to his common sense. " You haven't forgotten your father, have you, Annie?" said he. " I think aboot him maist ilka day," answered Annie. " But there comes a day now and then when you don't think much about him, does there not ?" "Yes, sir." "Do you think he would be angry with his child because she was so much taken up with her books or her play " "I never play at onything, sir." "Well with learning songs to say to Alec Forbes and Willie Macwha do you think he would be angry that you didn't think about him that day, especially when you can't see him ?" " 'Deed no, sir. He wadna be sae sair upo' me as that." " What would he say, do you think I" " Gin Mr. Bruce war to cast it up till me, he wad say : ' Lat alane the lassie. She '11 think aboot me the morn time eneuch.' " " Well, don't you think your Father in heaven would say the same ?" " Maybe he micht, sir. But ye see my father Alec Forbes of How glen. 249 was my ain father, and wad mak' the best o' me." "And is not God kinder than your father?" " He canna weel be that, sir. And there 's the Scripter !" " But he sent his only Son to die for us." "Ay for the eleck, sir," returned the little theologian. Now this was more than Mr. Cowie was well prepared to meet, for certainly this terrible doc- trine was perfectly developed in the creed of the Scotch church ; the assembly of divines having sat upon the scripture egg till they had hatched it in their own likeness. Poor Mr. Cowie ! There were the girl-eyes, blue, and hazy with tearful question, looking up at him hungrily. O starv- ing little brothers and sisters ! God does love you, and all shall be, and therefore is, well. But the minister could not say this, gladly as he would have said it if he could ; and the only result of his efforts to find a suitable reply was that he lost his temper not with Annie, but with the doctrine of election. "Gang ye hame, Annie, my bairn," said he, talking Scotch now, " and dinna trouble yer heid aboot election, and a' that. It 's no' a canny doctrine. No mortal man could ever win at the boddom o' 't. I 'm thinkin' we haena muckle to do wi' t'. Gang hame, dawtie, and say yer prayers 250 Alec Forbes of How glen. to be preserved frae the wiles o' Sawtan. There 's a sixpence to ye." His kind heart was sorely grieved that all it could give was money. She had asked for bread, and he had but a stone, as he thought, to give her. So he gave it her with shame. He might however have reversed the words of St. Peter, saying, " Spiritual aid I have none, but such as I have give I thee ;" and so offered her the sixpence. But, for my part, I think the sixpence had more of bread in it than any theology he might have been expected to have at hand ; for, so given, it was the symbol and the sign of love, which is the heart of the divine theology. Annie, however, had a certain Scotchness in her which made her draw back from the offer. -" Xa, thank ye, sir," she said ; " I dinna want it." *' Will ye no tak' it to please an aukt man, bairn?" " Deed will I, sir. I wad do a hantle mair nor that to please you." And again the tears filled her blue eyes as she held out her hand receiving in it a shilling which Mr. Cowie, for more relief to his own burdened heart, had substituted for the sixpence. " It 's a shillin', sir !" she said, looking up at him with the coin lying on her open palm. A lee Forbes of Howglen. 251 " Weel, what for no ? Is a shillin' no a sax- pence ?" " Ay, sir. It 's twa." " Weel, Annie," said the old man, suddenly elevated into prophecy for the child's need for he had premeditated nothing of the sort " maybe whan God offers us a saxpence, it may turn oot to be twa. Good nicht, by bairn." But Mr. Cowie was sorely dissatisfied with him- self. For not only did he perceive that the heart of the child could not be thus satisfied, but he began to feel something new stirring in his own bosom. The fact was that Annie was further on than Mr. Cowie. She was a child looking about to find the face of her Father in heaven : he was but one of God's babies, who had been lying on his knees, receiving contentedly and happily the good things he gave him, but never looking up to find the eyes of him from whom the good gifts came. And now the heart of the old man, touched by the mo- tion of the child's heart yearning after her Father in heaven, and yet scarcely believing that he could be so good as her father on earth began to stir uneasily within him. And he went down on his knees and hid his face in his hands. But Annie, though not satisfied, went away com- forted. After such a day of agony and humiliation, Mr. Cowie's kiss came gracious with restoration and 252 Alec Forbes of Howylen. blessing. It had something in it which was not in Mr. Brown's sermon. And yet if she had gone to Mr. Brown, she would have found him kind too very kind ; but solemnly kind severely kind ; his long saintly face beaming with religious tenderness ' n ot human cordiality ; and his heart full of interest in her spiritual condition not sympathy with the unhappiness which his own teaching had produced ; nay, rather inclined to gloat over this unhappiness as the sign of grace bestowed and an awakening conscience. But notwithstanding the comfort Mr. Cowie had given her the best he had, poor man ! Annie's distress soon awoke again. To know that she could not be near God in peace and love without ful- filling certain mental conditions that he would not have her just as she was now, filled her with an undefined but terribly real misery, only the more distressing that it was vague with the vagueness of the dismal negation from which it sprung. It was not however the strength of her love to God that made her unhappy in being thus barred out from him. It was rather the check thus given to the whole upward tendency of her being, with its multitude of undefined hopes arid longings now drawing nigh to the birth. It was in her ideal self rather than her conscious self that her misery arose. And now, dearly as she loved Mr. Cowie, she began Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. 253 to doubt whether he knew much about the matter. He had put her off without answering her questions, either because he thought she had no business with such things, or because he had no answer to give. This latter possibility added not a little to her unhappiness, for it gave birth to a fearful doubt as to the final safety of kind Mr. Cowie himself. But there was one man who knew more about such secret things, she fully believed, than any man alive; and that man was Thomas Crann. Thomas was a rather dreadful man, with his cold eyes, high shoulders, and wheezing breath: and Annie was afraid of him. But she would have encountered the terrors of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, as surely as the Pilgrim, to get rid of the demon nightmare that lay upon her bosom, crush- ing the life out of her heart. So she plucked up courage, like Christian of old, and resolved to set out for the house of the Interpreter. Judging, however, that he could not yet be home from his work, she thought it better to go home herself first. After eating a bit of oat cake, with a mug of blue milk for kitchie (Latin " obsonium "), she re- tired to her garret and waited drearily, but did not try to pray. 254 CHAPTER XXIX. IT was very dark by the time she left the house, for the night was drizzly; but she knew the windings of Glamerton almost as well as the way up her garret-stair. Thomas's door was half open, and a light was shining from the kitchen. She knocked timidly. At the same moment she heard the voice of Thomas from the other end of the house, which consisted only of a but and a ben. In the ben -end (the inner originally, hence better room) there was no light : Thomas often sat in the dark. "Jean, come ben to worship," he cried roughly. " Comhv, Thamas," answered Jean. Again Annie knocked, but again without result. Her knock was too gentle. After a moment's pause, dreading that the intended prayers might interfere with her project, she knocked yet again ; but a second time her knock was overwhelmed in the gruff call of Thomas, sounding yet more peremptory than before. Alec Forbes of How glen. 255 " Jean, come ben to worship." " Hoot, Thamas, hae patience, man. I canna come." " Jean, come ben to worship direckly." 'I'm i' the micls' o' cleanin' the shune. I hae dooble wark o' Mononday, ye ken." " The shune can bide." " Worship can bide." " Haud yer tongue. The shune can bide." " Xa, na ; they canna bide." " Gin ye dinna come ben this minute, I '11 hae worship my lane." Vanquished by the awful threat, Jean dropped the shoe she held, and turned her apron; but having to pass the door on her way to the ben-end, she saw Annie standing on the threshold, and stopped with a start, ejaculating : " The Loi'd preserve 's, lassie !" " Jean, what are ye sweerin' at ?" cried Thomas, angrily. " At Annie Anderson," answered Jean simply. " What for are ye sweerin' at her 1 I 'm sure she 's a douce lassie. What does the bairn wantt" "What do ye want, Annie?" " I want to see Thomas, gin ye please," answered Annie. "She wants to see you, Thomas," screamed 256 Alec Forbes of Iloicylen. Jean ; remarking in a lower voice, " He 's as deef 's a door-nail, Annie Anderson." . " Lat her come in, than," bawled Thomas. " He 's tellin' ye to come in, Annie," said Jean, as if she had been interpreting his words. But she detained her nevertheless to ask several unim- portant questions. At length the voice of Thomas rousing her once more, she hastened to introduce her. " Gang in there, Annie," she said, throwing open the door of the dark room. The child entered and stood just within it, not knowing even where Thomas sat. But a voice came to her out of the gloom : " Ye 're no feared at the dark, are ye, Annie ? Come in." " I dinna ken whaur I'm gaein." " Never min' that. Come straucht foret. I 'm watchin' ye." For Thomas had been sitting in the dark till he could see in it (which, however, is not an in- variable result), while out of the little light Annie had come into none at all. But she obeyed the voice, and went straight forward into the dark, evidently much to the satisfaction of Thomas, who, seizing her arm with one hand, laid the other, horny and heavy, on her head, saying: " Noo, my lass, ye '11 ken what faith means. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 257 Whan God tells ye to gang into the mirk, gang !" " But I dinna like the mirk," said Annie. " No human sowl can," responded Thomas. " Jean, fess a can'le direckly." Now Thomas was an enemy to everything that could be, justly or unjustly, called superstition; and this therefore was not the answer that might have been expected of him. But he had begun with the symbolic and mystical in his reception of Annie, and perhaps there was something in the lovely childishness of her unconscious faith (while she all the time thought herself a dreadful un- believer) that kept Thomas to the simplicities of the mystical part of his nature. Besides, Thomas's mind was a rendezvous for all extremes. In him they met, and showed that they met by fighting all day long. If you knocked at his inner door, you never could tell what would open it to you all depending on what happened to be uppermost in the wrestle. The candle was brought, and set on the table, showing two or three geranium plants in the window. Why her eyes should have fixed upon these, Annie tried to discover afterwards, when she was more used to thinking. But she could not tell, except it were that they were so scraggy and wretched, half drowned in the darkness, and half blanched by the miserable light, and therefore VOL. I. S 258 Alec Forbes of Hou-glen. must have been very like her own feelings, as she stood before the ungentle but not unkind stone- mason. " Weel, lassie," said he, when Jean had retired, " what do ye want wi' me?" Annie burst into tears again. "Jean, gae butt the hoose, direckly," cried Thomas, on the mere chance of his attendant's having lingered at the door. And the sound of her retreating footsteps, though managed with all possible care, immediately justified his suspicion. This interruption turned Annie's tears aside, and when Thomas spoke next, she was able to reply. " Noo, my bairn," he said, " what 's the maitter?" " I was at the missionar kirk, last nicht," fal- tered Annie. "Ay! And the sermon took a grip o' ye? Nae doot, nae doot. Ay. Ay." " I canna help forgettin' him, Thomas." " But ye maun try and no forget him, lassie." " Sae I do. But it 's dour work, and 'maist impossible." " Sae it maun aye be; to the auld Aidam im- possible ; to the young Christian a weary watch." Hope began to dawn upon Annie. " A body micht hae a chance," she asked with meditative suggestion, " allooin' 'at she did forget him whiles?" Alec Forbes of Hou-glen. 259. "Nae doot, lassie. The nations that forget God are them that dinna care, that never fash their heids, or their herts aither, aboot him them that were never called, never chosen." Annie's trouble returned like a sea-wave that had only retired to gather strength. " But hoo 's a body to ken whether she be ane o' the elec"?" she said, quaking. "That's a hard maitter. It's no needfu' to ken 't aforehan'. Jist lat that alane i' the mean time." " But I canna lat it alane. It 's no for mysel aither a'thegither. Could ye lat it alane, Thomas?" This home-thrust prevented any questioning about the second clause of her answer. And Thomas dearly loved plain dealing. " Ye hae me there, lassie. Na, I cudna lat it alane. An' I never did lat it alane. I plaguit the Lord nicht an' day till he loot me ken." " I tried hard last nicht," said Annie, " but the rottans war ower mony for me." " Sawtan has mony wiles," said the mason re- flectively. " Do ye think they warna rottans?" asked Annie. " Ow! nae doot. I daursay." " 'Cause, gin I thocht they war only deils, I Avadna care a buckie (periwinkle) for them." s2 260 Alec Forbes of Howglen. " It 's muckle the same what ye ca' them, gin they ca you frae the throne o' grace, lassie." " What am I to do than, Thomas f " " Ye maun haud at it, lassie, jist as the poor widow did wi' the unjust judge. An' gin the Lord hears ye, ye '11 ken ye 're ane o' the elec', for it's only his own elec' that the Lord dis hear. Eh ! lassie, little ye ken aboot prayin' an' no faintin'." Alas for the parable if Thomas's theories were to be carried out in its exposition ! For they would lead to the conclusion that the Lord and the unjust judge were one and the same person. But it is our divine aspirations and not our intellectual theories that need to be carried out. The latter may, nay must in some measure, perish ; the former will be found in perfect harmony with the divine Will ; yea, true though faint echoes of that Will echoes from the unknown caves of our deepest humanity, where lies, yet swathed in darkness, the divine image. To Thomas's words Annie's only reply was a fixed gaze, which he answered thus, resuming his last words : " Ay, lassie, little ye ken aboot watchin' and prayin'. Whan it pleased the Lord to call me, I was stan'in' my lane i' the raids' o' a peat-moss, luikin' wast, whaur the sun had left a reid licht Alec Forbes of How glen, 261 > ahin him, as gin he had jist brunt oot o' the lift, an' hadna gane doon ava. An' it min'd me o' the day o' jeedgment. An' there I steid and luikit, till the licht itsel' deid oot, an' naething was left but a gray sky an' a feow starns intil 't. An' the cloods gethered, an' the lift grew black an' mirk ; an' the haill country-side vainished, till I kent no more aboot it than what my twa feet could answer for. An' I daurna muv for the fear o' the pits o' water an' the walleen (icell-eyes quagmire-springs) on ilka han'. The lee-lang nicht I stood, or lay, or kneeled upo' my k-nees, cryin' to the Lord for grace. I forgot a' aboot election, an' cried jist as gin 1 could gar him hear me by haudin' at him. An' i' the mornin', whan the licht cam', I faund that my face was to the risin' sun. And I crap oot o' the bog, an' hame to my ain hoose. An' ilka body 'at I met o' the road, took the tither side o' 't, and glowert at me as gin I had been a ghaist or a warlock. An' the bairns playin' aboot the doors ran in like rabbits whan they got sicht o' me. An' I begud to think 'at something fearsome had signed me for a reprobate ; an' I jist closed my door, and gaed to my bed, and loot my wark stan', for wha cud work wi' damnation hingin' ower his heid 1 An' three days gaed ower me, that nothing passed my lips but a drap o' milk an' water. An' o' the fourth day, i' the efternoon, I gaed to my 262 Alec Forbes of How glen. wark wi' my held swimrain' and my hert like to brak for verra glaidness. I was ane o' the chosen." " But hoo did ye fin' that oot, Thomas ?" asked Annie, trembling. u Weel, lassie," answered Thomas, with solemn conviction in every tone, " it 's my firm belief that, say what they like, there is, and there can be but one way o' comin' to the knowledge o' that secret." "And what's that?" entreated Annie, whose life seemed to hang upon his lips. " Jist this. Get a sicht o' the face o' God. It's my belief, an' a' the minnisters in creation '11 no gar me alter my rnin', that no man can get a glimp' o' the face o' God, but ane o' the chosen. I 'm no sayin' 'at a man 's no ane o' the elec' that hasna had that favour vouchsaufed to him ; but this I do say, that he canna ken his election wi'oot that. Try ye to get a sicht o' the face o' God, lassie : syne ye '11 ken and be at peace. Even Moses himsel' cudna be saitisfeed Avi'oot that." " What is 't like, Thomas ?" said Annie, with an eagerness which awe made very still. " No words can tell that. It 's all in the speerit. Whan ye see 't, ye '11 ken 't. There 's no fear o' mistakin' that" Teacher and scholar were silent. Annie was the first to speak. She had gained her quest. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 263 " Am I to gang hame noo, Thomas V " Ay, gang hame, lassie, to yer prayers. But I doobt it 's dark. I '11 gang wi' ye. Jean, my shune !" "Na, na; I could gang hame blinlins," re- monstrated Annie. " Haud yer tongue. I 'in gaein hame wi' ye, bairn. Jean, my shune !" "Hoot, Thamas! I Ve jist cleaned them," screeched Jean from the kitchen at the second call. "Fess them here direckly. It's a jeedgment on ye for sayiii' worship cud bide better nor the shune." Janet brought them and put them down sulkily. In another minute the great shoes, full of nails half an inch broad, were replaced on the tired feet, and with her soft little hand clasped in the great horny hand of the stonemason, Annie trotted home by his side. With Scotch caution, Thomas, as soon as they entered the shop, instead of taking leave of Annie, went up to the counter, and asked for an "mice o' tobawco," as if his appearance along with Annie were merely accidental ; while Annie, with perfect appreciation of the reticence, ran through the gap in the counter. She was so far comforted and so much tired, that she fell asleep at her prayers by the bedside. Presently she awoke in terror. It was Pussy however 264 Alec Forbes of How glen. that had waked her, as she knew by the green eyes lamping in a corner. But she closed her prayers rather abruptly, clambered into bed, and was soon fast asleep. And in her sleep she dreamed that she stood in the darkness of the same peatmoss which had held Thomas and his prayers all the night long. She thought she was kept in there, till she should pray enough to get herself out of it. And she tried hard to pray, but she could not. And she fell down in despair, beset with the terrors of those frightful holes full of black water which she had seen on her way to Glamerton. But a hand came out of the darkness, laid hold of hers, and lifting her up, led her through the bog. And she dimly saw the form that led her, and it was that of a man who walked looking upon the earth. And she tried to see his face, but she could not, for he walked ever a little before her. And he led her home to the old farm. And her father came to the door to meet them. And he looked just the same as in the old happy days, only that his face was strangely bright. And with the joy of seeing her father she awoke to a gentle sorrow that she had not seen also the face of her deliverer. The next evening she wandered down to George Macwha's, and found the two boys at work. She had no poetry to give them, no stories to tell them, Alec Forbes of Howglen. 265 no answer to their questions as to where she had been the night before. She could only stand in silence and watch them. The skeleton of the boat grew beneath their hands, but it was on the workers and not on their work that her gaze was fixed. For her heart was burning within her, and she could hardly restrain herself from throwing her arms about their necks and imploring them to seek the face of God. Oh ! if she only knew that Alec and Curly were of the elect ! But they only could find that out. There was no way for her to peer into that mystery. All she could do was to watch their wants, to have the tool they needed next ready to their hand, to clear away the spales from before the busy plane, and to lie in wait for any chance of putting to her little strength to help. Perhaps they were not of the elect ! She would minister to them therefore oh, how much the more tenderly ! " What 's come ower Annie ?" said the one to the other when she had gone. But there was no answer to be found to the question. Could they have understood her if she had told them what had come over her ? 266 CHAPTER XXX. AND so the time went on, slow-paced, with its silent destinies. Annie said her prayers, read her bible, and tried not to forget God. Ah ! could she only have known that God never forgot her, whether she forgot him or not, giving her sleep in her dreary garret, gladness even in Murdoch Malison's school-room, and the light of life everywhere ! He was now leading on the blessed season of spring, when the earth would be almost heaven enough to those who had passed through the fierceness of the winter. Even now, the win- ter, old and weary, was halting away before the sweet approaches of the spring a symbol of that eternal spring before whose slow footsteps Death itself, " the winter of our discontent," shall vanish. Death alone can die everlastingly. I have been diffuse in my account of Annie's first winter at school, because what impressed her should impress those who read her history. It is Alec Forbes of How glen. 267 her reflex of circumstance, in a great measure, which makes that history. In regard to this portion of her life, I have little more to say than that by degrees the school became less irksome to her; that she grew more interested in her work ; that some of the reading-books contained extracts which she could enjoy ; and that a taste for read- ing began to wake in her. If ever she came to school with her lesson unprepared, it was because some book of travel or history had had attractions too strong for her. And all that day sbe would go about like a guilty thing, oppressed by a sense of downfall and neglected duty. With Alec it was very different. He would often find himself in a similar case ; but the neglect would make no impression on his con- science ; or if it did, he would struggle hard to keep down the sense of dissatisfaction which strove to rise within him, and enjoy himself in spite of it. Annie, again, accepted such as her doom, and went about gently unhappy, till neglect was forgotten in performance. There is nothing that can wipe out wrong but right. And still she haunted George Macwha's work- shop, where the boat sotfn began to reveal the full grace of its lovely outlines. Of all the works of man's hands, except those that belong to Art, a boat is the loveliest, and, in the old sense of the 268 Alec Forbes of Howglen. word, the liveliest. Why is this 1 Is it that it is born between Wind and Water '{ Wind the father, ever casting himself into multitudinous shapes of invisible tides, .taking beauteous form in the sweep of a "lazy-paced cloud," or embodying a transient informing freak in the waterspout, which he draws into his life from the bosom of his mate; Water, the mother, visible she, sweeping and swaying, ever making and ever unmade, the very essence of her being beauty, yet having no form of her own, and yet again manifesting herself in the ceaseless generation of passing forms ? If the boat be the daughter of these, the stable child of visible and invisible subtlety, made to live in both, and shape its steady course between their varying and con- flicting forces if her Ideal was modelled between the flap of airy pinions and the long ranging flow of the serpent water, how could the lines of her form fail of grace ? Nor in this case were the magic influences of verse wanting to mould and model a boat which from prow to stern should be lovely and fortunate. As Pandemonium " Rose like an exhalation, with the sound Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet," so the little boat grew to the sound of Annie's voice uttering not Runic Rhymes but old Scotch Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. 269 ballads, or such few sweet English poems, of the new revelation, as floated across her way, and folded their butterfly wings in her memory. I have already said that reading became a great delight to her. Mr. Cowie threw his library, with very little restriction, open to her ; and books old and new were all new to her. She carried every fresh one home with a sense of riches and a feeling of upliftedness which I can ill describe. She gloated over the thought of it, as she held it tight in her hand, with feelings resembling, and yet how unlike, those of Johnny Bruce when he crept into his rabbits' barrel to devour the pennyworth of plimky (a preparation of treacle and flour) which his bro- ther would else have compelled him to share. Now that the days were longer, she had plenty of time to read ; for although her so-called guardians made cutting remarks upon her idleness, they had not yet compelled her to nursing or needlework. If she had shown the least inclination to either, her liberty would have been gone from that moment ; but, with the fear of James Dow before their eyes, they let her alone. As to her doing anything in the shop, she was far too much of an alien to be allowed to minister in the lowliest office of that sacred temple of Mammon. So she read everything she could lay her hands upon ; and as often as she found anything peculiarly interesting, she would 270 Alec Forbes of How glen. take the book to the boat, where the boys were always ready to listen to whatever she brought them. And this habit made her more discerning and choice. Before I leave the school, however, I must give one more scene out of its history. One mid-day in spring, just as the last of a hail- shower was passing away, and a sickly sunbeam was struggling out, the schoolroom-door opened, and in came Andrew Truffey, with a smile on his worn face, which shone in touching harmony with the watery gleam of the sun between the two hail- storms for another was close at hand. He swung himself in on the new pivot of his humanity, namely his crutch, which every one who sa\v him believed at once he was never more to go without, till he sank wearied on the road to the grave, and had to be carried the rest of the way. He looked very long and deathly, for he had grown much while lying in bed. The master rose hurriedly from his desk, and advanced to meet him. A deep stillness fell upon the scholars. They dropped all their work, and gazed at the meeting. The master held out his hand. With awkwardness and difficulty Andrew presented the hand which had been holding the crutch ; and, not yet thoroughly used to the man- agement of it, staggered in consequence and would Alec Forbes of Howglen. 271 have fallen. But the master caught him in his arms and carried him to his old seat beside his brother. "Thank ye, sir," said the boy with another gleamy smile, through which his thin features and pale, prominent eyes told yet more plainly of sad suffering all the master's fault, as the master knew. " Leuk at the dominie," said Curly to Alec. "He'sgreitin'." For Mr. Malison had returned to his seat and had laid his head down on the desk, evidently to hide his emotion. " Haud yer tongue, Curly. Dinna leuk at him," returned Alec. " Pie 's sorry for poor Truffey." Every one behaved to the master that day with marked respect. And from that day forward Truffey was in universal favour. Let me once more assert that Mr. Malison was not a bad man. The misfortune was, that his notion of right fell in with his natural fierceness; and that, in aggravation of the too common feeling with which he had commenced his relations with his pupils, namely, that they were not only the natural enemies of the master, but therefore of all law, theology had come in and taught him that they were in their own nature bad with a badness for which the only set-off he knew or could introduce 272 Alec Forbes of Howglen. was blows. Independently of any remedial quality that might be in them, these blows were an em- bodiment of justice ; for " every sin," as the cate- chism teaches, " deserveth God's wrath and curse both in this life and that which is to come." The master therefore was only a co-worker with God in every pandy he inflicted on his pupils. I do not mean that he reasoned thus, but that such-like were the principles he had to act upon. And I must add that, with all his brutality, he was never guilty of such cruelty as one reads of occa- sionally as perpetrated by English schoolmasters of the present day. Nor were the boys ever guilty of such cruelty to their fellows as is not only per- mitted but excused in the public schools of Eng- land. The taws, likewise, is a far less cruel in- strument of torture than the cane, which was then unknown in that region. And now the moderation which had at once followed upon the accident was confirmed. Pun- ishment became less frequent still, and where it was yet inflicted for certain kinds and degrees of of- fence, its administration was considerably less severe than formerly ; till at length the boys said that the master never put on black stockings now, except when he was " oot o' white anes." Nor did the disci- plineof the school suffer in consequence. If one wants to make a hard-mouthed horse more responsive to Alec Forbes of Howglen. 273 the rein, he must relax the pressure and friction of the bit, and make the horse feel that he has got to hold up his own head. If the rider supports himself by the reins, the horse will pull. But the marvel was to see how Andrew Truffey haunted and dogged the master. He was as it were a conscious shadow to him. There was no hour of a holiday in which Truffey could not tell precisely where the master was. If one caught sight of Andrew, hirpling down a passage, or lean- ing against a corner, he mght be sure the master would pass within a few minutes. And the haunting of little Truffey worked so on his conscience, that, if the better nature of him had not asserted itself in love to the child, he would have been compelled to leave the place. For think of having a visible sin of your own, in the shape of a lame-legged boy, peeping at you round every other corner ! But he did learn to love the boy ; and therein appeared the divine vengeance ah ! how different from human vengeance I that the outbreak of unrighteous wrath reacted on the wrong-doer in shame, repentance, and love. VOL. I. 274 CHAPTER XXXI. AT length the boat was calked, tarred, and painted. One evening as Annie entered the workshop, she heard Curly cry, " Here she is, Alec !" and Alec answer, " Let her come. I 'm just done." Alec stood at the stern of the boat, with a pot in one hand, and a paint-brush in the other ; and, when Annie came near, she discovered to her surprise, and not a little to her delight, that he was just finishing off the last E of " THE BONNIE ANNIE." " There," said he, " that 's her name. Hoo de ye like it, Annie ?" Annie was too much pleased to 'reply. She looked at it for a while with a flush on her face ; and then turning away, sought her usual seat on the heap of spales. A lee Forbes of Howglen . 275 How much that one winter, witli its dragons and its heroes, its boat-building and its rhymes, its discomforts at home and its consolations abroad, its threats of future loss, and comforts of present hope, had done to make the wild country child into a thoughtful little woman ! Now who should come into the shop at the moment but Thomas Crann ! the very man of all men not to be desired on the occasion ; for the boys had contemplated a certain ceremony of christening, which they dared not carry out in the presence of the stone-mason ; without which, how- ever, George Macwha was very doubtful whether the little craft would prove a lucky one. By common understanding they made no allusion to the matter, thus postponing it for the present. " Ay ! ay ! Alec," said Thomas ; " sae yer beat 's bigget at last I" He stood contemplating it for a moment, not without some hardly perceptible signs of admira- tion, and then said : " Gin ye had her oot upon a muckle water, do ye think ye wad jump oot ower the side o' her, gin the Saviour tauld ye, Alec Forbes ?" "Ay wad I, gin I war richt sure he wantit me." " Ye wad stan' an' parley wi' him, nae doot ?" T 2 276 Alec Forbes of Howgkn. " I bude (behoved) to be richt sure it was his ain sel', ye ken, an' that he did call me." " Ow ay, laddie ! That 's a' richt. "Weel, I houp ye wad. I aye had guid houps o' ye, Alec, my man. But there may be sic a thing as loupin' into the sea o' life oot o' the ark o' salvation : an' gin ye loup in whan he doesna call ye, or gin ye getna a grip o' his han', whan he does, ye 're sure to droon, as sure 's ane o' the swine that ran heed- long in and perished i' the water." Alec had only a dim sense of his meaning, but he had faith that it was good, and so listened in respectful silence. Surely enough of sacred as well as lovely sound had been uttered over the boat to make her faithful and fortunate ! The hour arrived at length when The Bonnie Annie was to be launched. It was one of a bright Saturday afternoon, in the month of May, full of a kind of tearful light, which seemed to say : " Here I am, but I go to-morrow !" Yet though there might be plenty of cold weather to come, though the hail might fall in cart-loads, and the snow might lie thick for a day or two, there would be no more frozen waters, and the boughs would be bare and desolate no more. A few late prim- roses were peeping from the hollows damp with moss and shadow along the banks, and the trees by the stream were in small voting leaf. There ^4 lee Forbes of Howylen , 277 was a light wind full of memories of past summers and promises for the new one at hand, one of those gentle winds that blow the eyes of the flowers open, that the earth may look at the heaven. In the midst of this baby-waking of the world, the boat must glide into her new life. Alec got one of the men on the farm to yoke a horse to bring the boat to the river. With the help of George she was soon placed in the cart, and Alec and Curly got in beside her. The little creature looked very much like a dead fish, as she lay jolting in the hot sun, with a motion irksome to her delicate sides, her prow sticking awkwardly over the horse's back, and her stern projecting as far beyond the cart behind. Thus often is the human boat borne painfully to the stream on which thereafter it shall glide contentedly through and out of the world. When they had got about half-way, Alec said to Curly : " I wonner what 's come o' Annie, Curly ? Tt wad be a shame to lainch the boat wantin' her." " Deed it wad. I s' jist rin and luik efter her, an' ye can luik efter the boat." So saying, Curly was out of the cart with a bound. Away he ran over a field of potatoes, straight as the crow flies, while the cart went slowly on towards the Glamour. 278 Alec Forbes of How glen. " Whaur 's Annie Anderson ?" he cried, as he burst into Robert Bruce* s shop. " What 's your business ?" asked the Bruce a question which evidently looked for no answer. "Alec wants her." "Weel, he will want her," retorted Robert, shutting his jaws with a snap, and grinning a smileless grin from ear to ear, like the steel clasp of a purse. By such petty behaviour he had long ago put himself on an equality with the young rascals generally, and he was no match for them on their own level. Curly left the shop at once, and went round by the close into the garden, where he found Annie loitering up and down with the baby in her arms, and looking very weary. This was in fact the first time she had had to carry the baby, and it fatigued her dreadfully. Till now Mrs. Bruce had had the assistance of a ragged child, whose father owed them money for groceries : he could not pay it, and they had taken his daughter instead. Long ago, however, she had slaved it out, and had at length gone back to school. The sun was hot, the baby w r as heavy, and Annie felt all arms and back they were aching so with the unaccustomed drudgery. She was all but crying when Curly darted to the gate, his face glowing with his run, and his eyes sparkling with excitement. Alec Forbes of Howglen. 279 " Come, Annie," cried he ; " we 're gaein' to lainch the boat." "I canna, Curly; I hae the bairn to min'." " Tak the bairn in til 'ts mither." " I daurna." " Lay 't doon o' the table, an' rin." " Na, na, Curly ; I cudna do that. Puir little crater !" " Is the beastie heavy f ' asked Curly, with de- ceitful interest. "DreadfuV "Lat'stry." " Ye '11 lat her fa'." " Deed no. I 'm no sae fusionless (pithless). Gie 's a haud o' her." Annie yielded her charge ; but no sooner had Curly possession of the baby, than he bounded away with her out of the garden into the back yard adjoining the house. Now in this yard, just opposite the kitchen-window, there was a huge sugar-cask, which, having been converted into a reservoir, stood under a spout, and was at this mo- ment half full of rain-water. Curly, having first satisfied himself that Mrs. Bruce was at work in the kitchen, and therefore sure to see him, mounted a big stone that lay beside the barrel, and pretended to lower the baby into the water, as if trying how much she would endure with equanimity. In a 280 A lee Forbes of Howglen. moment, he received such a box on the ear that, had he not been prepared for it, he would in reality have dropped the child into the barrel. The same mo- ment the baby was in its mother's arms, and Curly sitting at the foot of the- barrel, nursing his head, and pretending to suppress a violent attack of weeping. The angry mother sped into the house with her rescued child. No sooner had she disappeared than Curly was on his feet scudding back to Annie, who had been staring over the garden-gate in utter bewilderment at his behaviour. She could no longer resist his entreaties : off she ran with him to the banks of the Glamour, where they soon came upon Alec and the man in the act of putting the boat on the slip, which, in the present instance, was a groove hol- lowed out of a low part of the bank, so that she might glide in more gradually. "Hurrah! There's Annie!" cried Alec. "Come awa', Annie. Here 's a glass o' whisky I got frae my mither to kirsten the boat. Fling 't at the name o' her.'' Annie did as she was desired, to the perfect satisfaction of all present, particularly of the long, spare, sinewy farm-servant, who had contrived, when Alec's back was turned, to swallow the whisky and substitute Glamour water, which no doubt did equally well for the purposes of the Alec Forbes of Howglen. 281 ceremony. Then with a gentle push from all, the Bonnie Annie slid into the Glamour, where she lay afloat in contented grace, as unlike herself in the cart as a swan waddling wearily to the water is unlike the true swan-self when her legs have no longer .to support her weight, but to oar her along through the friendly up-holding element. " Isna she bonnie T cried Annie in delight. And indeed she was bonnie, in her green and white paint, lying like a great water-beetle ready to scamper over the smooth surface. Alec sprang on board, nearly upsetting the tiny craft. Then he held it by a bush on the bank while Curly handed in Annie, who sat down in the stern. Curly then got in himself, and Alec and he seized each an oar. But what with their inexperience and the nature of the channel, they found it hard to get along. The river w r as full of great stones, making narrow pas- sages, so that, in some parts, it was not possible to row. They knew nothing about the manage- ment of a boat, and were no more at ease than if they had been afloat in a tub. Alec being stronger in the arms than Curly, they went round and round for some time, as if in a whirlpool, with a timeless and grotesque spluttering and sprawling. At last they gave it up in weariness, and allowed the Bonnie Annie to float along the stream, taking care only to keep her off the rocks. Past them went the 282 Alec Forbes of Hoicglen. banks here steep and stony, but green with moss where little trickling streams found their way into the channel; there spreading into low alluvial shores, covered with lovely grass, starred with daisies and buttercups, from which here and there rose a willow, whose low boughs swept the water. A little while ago, they had skated down its frozen surface, and had seen a snowy land shooting past them; now, with an unfelt gliding, they floated down, and the green meadows dreamed away as if they would dream past them for ever. Suddenly, as they rounded the corner of a rock, a great roar of falling water burst on their ears, and they started in dismay. " The sluice is up !" cried Alec. " Tak' to yer oar, Curly." Along this part of the bank, some twenty feet above them, ran a mill-race, which a few yards lower down communicated by means of a sluice with the river. This sluice was now open, for, from the late rains, there was too much water ; and the surplus rushed from the race into the Glamour in a foaming cataract. Annie seeing that the boys were uneasy, got very frightened, and, closing her eyes, sat motionless. Louder and louder grew the tumult of the waters, till their sound seemed to fall in a solid thunder on her brain. The boys tried hard to row against the stream, but without avail. Slowly Alec Forbes of Howglen. 283 and surely it carried them down into the very heart of the boiling fall ; for on this side alone was the channel deep enough for the boat, and the banks were too steep and bare to afford any hold. At last, the boat drifting stern foremost, a torrent of water struck Annie and tumbled into the boat as if it would beat out the bottom of it. Annie was tossed about in fierce waters, and ceased to know anything. When she came to herself, she was in an unknown bed, with the face of Mrs. Forbes bending anxiously over her. She would have risen, but Mrs. Forbes told her to lie still, which indeed Annie found much more pleasant. As soon as they got under the fall, the boat had filled and foundered. Alec and Curly could swim like otters, and were out of the pool at once. As they went down, Alec had made a plunge to lay hold of Annie, but had missed her. The moment he got his breath, he swam again into the boiling pool, dived, and got hold of her ; but he was so stupefied by the force of the water falling upon him and beating him down, that he could not get out of the raging depth for here the water was many feet deep and as he would not leave his hold of Annie, was in danger of being drowned. Meantime Curly had scrambled on shore and climbed up to the mill-race, where he shut down the sluice hard. In a moment the tumult had ceased, and Alec and 284 Alec Forbes of Howylen. Annie were in still water. In a moment more lie had her on the bank, apparently lifeless, whence he carried her home to his mother in terror. She immediately resorted to one or two of the usual restoratives, and was presently successful. As soon as she had opened her eyes, Alec and Curly hurried off to get out their boat. They met the miller in an awful rage ; for the sudden onset of twice the quantity of water on his overshot wheel, had set his machinery off as if it had been bewitched, and one old stone, which had lost its iron girdle, had flown in pieces, to the frightful danger of the miller and his men. " Ye ill- designed villains !" cried he at a venture, " what gart ye close the sluice ? Is' learn ye to min' what ye 're aboot. Deil tak' ye for rascals !" Arid he seized one in each brawny hand. " Annie Anderson was droonin' aneath the waste- water," answered Curly promptly. " The Lord preserve 's !" said the miller, re- laxing his hold. " Hoo was that ? Did she fa' in?" The boys told him the whole story. In a few minutes more, the back-fall was again turned off, and the miller was helping them to get their boat out. The Bonnie Annie was found uninjured. Only the oars and stretchers had floated down the stream, and were never heard of again. Alec Forbes of Hoivglen. 285 Alec had a terrible scolding from his mother for getting Annie into such mischief. Indeed Airs. Forbes did not like the girl's being so much with her son ; but she comforted herself with the proba- bility that by and by Alec would go to college, and forget her. Meantime, she was very kind to Annie, and took her home herself, in order to excuse her absence, the blame of which she laid entirely on Alec, not knowing that thereby she greatly aggravated any offence of which Annie might have been guilty. Mrs. Bruce solemnly declared her conviction that a judgment had fallen upon her for Willie Macwha's treatment of her baby. " Gin I hadna jist gotten a glimp o' him in time, he wad hae drooned the bonny infant afore my verra een. It 's w r eel waui'ed on them !" It did not occur to her that a wet skin was so very moderate a punishment for child-murder, that possibly there had been no connection between them. This first voyage of the Bonnie Annie may seem a bad beginning; but I am not sure that most good ends have not had such a bad beginning. Perhaps the world itself may be received as a case in point. Alec and Curly went about for a few days with a rather subdued expression. But as soon as the boat was refitted, they got George Mac- wha to go with them for cockswain ; and under his 286 Alec Forbes of Howglen. instructions, they made rapid progress in rowing and sculling. Then Annie was again their com- panion, and, the boat being by this time fitted with a rudder, had several lessons in steering, in which she soon became proficient. Many a moonlight row they had on the Glamour ; and many a night after Curly and Annie had gone home, would Alec again unmoor the boat, and drop down the water alone, letting the banks go dreaming past him not always sure that he was not dreaming himself and would not suddenly awake and find himself in his bed, and not afloat between heaven and earth, with the moon above and the moon below him. I think it was in these seasons that he began first to become aware of a certain stillness pervading the universe like a law ; a stillness ever being broken by the cries of eager men, yet ever closing and returning with a gentleness not to be repelled, seeking to infold and penetrate with its own healing the minds of the noisy children of the earth. But he paid little heed to the discovery- then, for he was made for activity, and in activity he found his repose. 287 CHAPTEE XXXII. MY story must have shown already that, although several years younger than Alec, Annie had much more character and personality than he. Alec had not yet begun to look realities in the face. The very nobility and fearlessness of his nature had preserved him from many such actions as give occasion for looking within, and asking oneself whereto things are tending. Full of life and restless impulses to activity, all that could properly be required of him as yet was that the action into which he rushed should be innocent, and if conventionally mischievous, yet actually harmless. Annie, comfortless at home, gazing all about her to see if there was a rest anywhere for her, had been driven by the outward desolation away from the window of the world to that other window that opens on the regions of silent being where God is, and into which when his creatures enter, or even look, the fountain of their life 288 Alec Forbes of Ilowglen. springs aloft with tenfold vigour and beauty. Alec, whose home was happy, knew nothing of that sense of discomfort which is sometimes the herald of a greater need. But he was soon to take a new start in his intellectual relations : nor in those alone, seeing the change was the result of a dim sense of duty. The fact of his not being a scholar to the mind of Murdoch Malison, arose from no deficiency of intellectual poicer, but only of intellectual capacity for the indefinite enlarge- ment of which a fitting excitement from without is alone requisite. The season went on, and the world, like a great flower afloat in space, kept opening its thousand- fold blossom. Hail and sleet were things lost in the distance of the year storming away in some far-off region of the north, unknown to the summer generation. The butterflies, with wings looking as if all the flower-painters of fairyland had wiped their brushes upon them in freakful yet artistic sport, came forth in the freedom of their wills and the faithful ignorance of their minds. The birds, the poets of the animal creation what though they never get beyond the lyrical ! awoke to utter their own joy, and awake like joy in others of God's chil- dren. The birds grew silent, because their history laid hold upon them, compelling them to turn their words into deeds, and keep eggs warm, and Alec Forbes of Howglen. 289 hunt for worms. The butterflies died of old age and delight. The green life of the earth rushed up in corn to be ready for the time of need. The corn grew ripe, and therefore weary, hung its head, died, and was laid aside for a life beyond its own. The keen sharp old mornings and nights of autumn came back as they had come so many thousand times before, and made human limbs strong and human hearts sad and longing. Winter would soon be near enough to stretch out a long forefinger once more, and touch with the first frosty shiver some little child that loved summer, and shrank from the cold. One evening in early autumn, when the sun, almost on the edge of the horizon, was shining right in at the end of one of the principal streets, filling its whole width with his glory of molten roses, all the shopkeepers were standing in their doors. Little groups of country people, bearing a curious relation to their own legs, were going in various directions across the square. Loud laughter, very much like animal noises, now and then invaded the ear ; but the sound only rippled the wide lake of the silence. The air was per- fumed with the scent of peat fires and the burning of weeds and potatoe-tops. There was no fountain to complete the harmony, but the intermittent gushes from the spout of the great pump in the VOL. I. U 290 Alec Forbes of Howglen. centre of the square were no bad substitute. At all events, they supplied the sound of water, without which Nature's orchestra is not full. Wattie Sim, the watchmaker, loner and lank, with grey bushy eyebrows meeting over his nose, had wandered, with the gait of a heedless pair of com- passes, across from his own shop to Bedford the bookseller's, at whose door a small group was al- ready gathered. " Well, Wattle," said Captain Clashmach, " how goes the world with you ?" " Muckle the same 's wi' yerseP, Captain, and the doctor there," answered Wattie with a grin. " Whan the time 's guid for ither fowk, it 's but sae sae for you and me. I haena had a watch come in for a haill ook (week)" " Hoo de ye accoont for that, Mr. Sim ?" asked a shoemaker who stood near without belonging to the group. "It 's the ile, man, the ile. Half the mischeef o' watches is the ile." " But I don't see," said the doctor, " how that can be, Sim." ' Weel, ye see, sir," answered Wattie and the words seemed somehow to have come tumbling silently down over the ridge of his nose, before he caught them in his mouth and articulated them " ye see, sir, watches is delicat things. They 're Alec Forbes of Howglen. 291 no to be traitet like fowk's insides wi' onything 'at comes first. Gin I cud jist get the middle half- pint oot o' the hert o' a hogsheid o' sperm ile, I wad I sud keep a' yer watches gaein like the verra universe. But it wad be an ill thing for me ye ken. Sae maybe a' thing 's for the best efter a'. Noo, ye see, i' this liet weather, the ile keeps fine an' saf t, and disna clog the warks. But losh pre- serves a' ! What 's that ?" Staring up the street towards the sunset, which coloured all their faces a red bronze, stood a group of townsfolk, momently increasing, from which, before Wattie's party could reach it, burst a general explosion of laughter. It was some moments, however, before they understood what was the matter, for the great mild sun shone full in their eyes. At length they saw, as if issuing from the huge heavy orb, a long dark line, like a sea-serpent of a hun- dred joints, coming down the street towards them, and soon discovered that it was a slow procession of animals. First came Mistress Stephen, Stum- pin Steenie the policeman's cow, with her tail at full stretch behind her. To the end of her tail was tied the nose of Jeames Joss the cadger's horse a gaunt sepulchral animal, which age and ill- treatment had taught to move as if knees and hocks were useless refinements in locomotion. He had just enough of a tail left to tie the nose of another u2 292 Alec Forbes of How glen. cow to ; and so, by the accretion of living joints, the strange monster lengthened out into the dim fiery distance. When Mrs. Stephen reached the square, she turned to lead her train diagonally across it, for in that direction lay her home. Moved by the same desire, the cadger's horse wanted to go in exactly the opposite direction. The cow pulled the one way, and the horse pulled the other ; but the cow, having her head free, had this advantage over the horse, which was fast at both ends. So he gave in, and followed his less noble leader. Cow after horse, and horse after cow, with a majority of cows, followed, to the number of twenty or so ; after which the joints began to diminish in size. Two calves were at the tail of the last cow, a little Highland one, with a sheep between them. Then came a goat belong- ing to Charles Chapman the wool-carder, the only goat in the place, which as often as the strain on his own tail slackened, made a butt at that of the calf in front of him. Next came a diminishing string of disreputable dogs, to the tail of the last of which was fastened the only cat the inventors of this novel pastime had been able to catch. At her tail followed alas ! Andrew Truffey's white rab- bit, whose pink eyes, now fixed and glazed, would no more delight the imagination of the poor cripple ; and whose long furry hind legs would never more Alec Forbes of Howglen. 293 bang the ground in sovereign contempt, as he dared pursuit; for the dull little beast, having, with the stiff- neckedness of fear, persisted in pulling against the string that tied him to the tail of Widow Wattles's great tom-cat, was now trailed ignominiously upon his side, with soiled fur and outstretched neck the last joint, and only dead one, of this bodiless tail. Before Mistress Stephen had reached her home, and just as the last link of the chain had appeared on the square, the mirth was raised to a yet higher pitch by the sudden rush of several women to the rescue, who had already heard the news of the ignominious abduction of their honoured kye, and their shameful exposure to public ridicule. Each made for her own four-footed property. " Guid preserve 's, Hawkie ! are ye come to this ?" cried Lucky Lapp, as she limped, still and ever lame with rheumatism, towards the third member of the procession. " Gin I had the loon that did it," she went on, fumbling, with a haste that defeated itself, at the knot that bound Hawkie's nose to the tail of the cadger's horse " gin I had the loon 'at did it, I wad ding the sowl oot o' his wame, the villain !" " Losh ! it 's my ain cat, as weel 's my ain coo," screamed Lucky Wattles in twofold indignation. " Gin I cud but redd (comb) the scoonrel's heid wi' your 294 Alec Forbes of Howglen. cleuks, Baudrons!" she added, as she fondled the cat passionately, " he wadna be in sic a doom's hurry to han'le ye again, I s' wad (wager)" By this time, Stumpin Steenie, having undone his cow's tail, was leading her home amid shouts of laughter. " Pit her i' the lock-up, Steenie. She 's been takin' up wi' ill loons," screeched an urchin. *' Haud yer ill tongue, or I s' tak' you up, ye rascal," bawled Steenie. " Ye '11 hae to saiddle Mistress Stephen afore ye can catch me, Stumpin' Steenie !" Steenie, inflamed with sudden wrath, forsook the cow, and made an elephantine rush at the offender, who vanished in the crowd, and thus be- trayed the constable to another shout of laugh- ter. While the laugh was yet ringing, the burly figure of the stonemason appeared, making his way by the momentum of great bulk and slow motion to the front of the crowd. With- out a word to any one, he drew a knife from his pocket, and proceeded to cut every cord that bound the helpless animals, the people staring silent all the while. It was a sight to see how the dogs scampered off in the delight of their recovered freedom. But the rabbit lay where the cat had left him. Thomas Alec Forbes of Howglen. took it with some sign of tenderness, and holding it up in his huge hand, put the question to the crowd in general. "Wha'sauchtthis?" " It 's cripple Truffey's ? " piped a shrill little voice. "Tell him 'at I'll account for't," rejoined Thomas, and putting the animal in his pocket, departed. He took the nearest way to George Macwha's workshop, where he found Alec and Curly, as he had expected, busy or appearing to be busy about something belonging to their boat. They looked considerably hotter, however, than could be ac- counted for by their work. This confirmed Thomas's suspicions. "A fine ploy yon for a young gentleman, Alec!" said he. "What ploy, Thomas?" asked Alec, with at- tempted innocence. " Ye ken weel eneuch what ploy I mean, man." " Weel, supposin' I do there 's nae that muckle hairm dune, to mak' a wark aboot, surely, Thomas." " Ca' ye that no hairm I" rejoined Thomas, pulling the dead rabbit out of his pocket, and holding it up by the ears. "Ca' ye that no hairm ?" he repeated. 296 Alec Forbes of Howylen. Alec stared in dismay. Thomas well knew his regard for animals, and had calculated upon it. " Luik at the puir thing wi' its bonny reid een closed for ever ! It 's a mercy to think 'at there 's no lemin' and lowin' (Hazing and. flaming) future in store for hit, puir mappy (bunny) ! " "Hoot, hoot, Thamas, man! Isna that bein' richteous over-much, as oor minister wad say ?" The question came in the husky voice of Peter Whaup, the blacksmith, who was now discovered leaning in over the half-door of the shop. "Andwha's your minister, Peter, my man?" re- torted Thomas, with some acrimony. " Mr. Cooie, as ye weel ken, Thamas." " I thoucht as muckle. The doctrine savours o' the man, Peter. There 's no fear o' him or ony o' his followers bein' richteous over-much." " Weel, ye ken, that 's naething but a rabbit i' yer han'. It wad hae been worried some day. Hoo cam' 't by 'ts deith !" " I didna mean to kill 't. 'T was a' for fun, ye ken," said Alec, addressing Thomas. "There's a heap o' fun," answered Thomas with solemnity, " that carries deith i' the tail o' 't. Here's the puir cripple laddie's rabbit as deid's a herrin', and him at hame greetin' his een oot, I daursay." Alec Forbes of Howglen. 297 Alec caught up his cap and made for the door. " I '11 gang and see him. Curly, wha has ony rabbits to sell ?" " Doddles's cleckit aboot a month ago." " Whaur does Doddles bidet" " I '11 lat ye see." The boys were hurrying together from the shop, when Thomas caught Alec by the arm. " Ye canna restore the rabbit, Alec." " Hoot ! Thamas, ae rabbit 's as guid 's anither," interposed the smith, in a tone indicating disappro- bation, mingled with a desire to mollify. " Ay to them 'at cares for neither. But there 's sic a thing as a human election, as weel 's a divine ane ; an' ane 's no the same 's anither, ance it 's a chosen ane." " Weel, I pity them 'at the Lord has no pity upo'," sighed the smith, with a passing thought of his own fits of drinking. " Gang ye and try him. He may hae pity upo' you wha kens?" said Thomas, as he followed Alec, whom he had already released, out of the shop. " Ye see, Alec," he resumed in a low voice, when they were in the open air Curly going on before them, " it 's time 'at ye was growin' a man, and pittin' awa' childish things. Yer mither '11 be de- pen'in' upo' you, or lang, to haud things gaein' ; and 298 Alec Forbes of Howylen. ye ken gin ye negleck yer chance at the school, yer time '11 no come ower again. Man, ye sud try to do something for conscience-sake. Hae ye learnt yer lessons for the morn, noo ?" " No, Thomas. But I will. I 'm jist gaein' to buy a pair o' rabbits to Truffey ; and syne I '11 gang hame." " There 's a guid lad. Ye '11 be a comfort till yer mither some day yet." With these words, Thomas turned and left them. There had been a growing, though it was still a vague sense, in Alec's mind, that he was not doing well ; and this rebuke of Thomas Crann brought it full into the light of his own consciousness. From that day he worked better. Mr. Malison saw the change, and acknowledged it. This re- acted on Alec's feeling for the master ; and during the following winter he made three times the pro- gress he had made in any winter preceding. For the sea of summer ebbed aw T ay, and the rocky channels of the winter appeared, with its cold winds, its ghost-like mists, and the damps and shiverings that cling about the sepulchre in which Nature lies sleeping. The boat was carefully laid up, across the rafters of the barn, well wrapped in a shroud of tarpaulin. It was buried up in the air; and the Glamour on which it had floated so gaily, would soon be buried under the ice. Summer Alec Forbes of Hou-glen. 299 alone could bring them together again the one from the dry gloom of the barn, the other from the cold seclusion of its wintry hebetude. Meantime, Mrs. Forbes was somewhat troubled in her mind as to what should be done with Alec ; and she often talked with the schoolmaster about him. Herself of higher birth, socially considered, than her husband, she had the ambition that her son should be educated for some profession. Now in Scotland education is more easily got than almost anything else ; and whether there might be room for the exercise of the profession afterwards, was a matter of less moment to Mrs. Forbes, seeing she was not at all willing that the farm which had been in her husband's family for hundreds of years, should pass into the hands of strangers, and Alec himself had the strongest attachment to the ances- tral soil ; for to be loved it is not necessary that land should be freehold. At length his increased diligence, which had not escaped her observation, and was testified to by Mr. Malison, confirmed her determination that he should at least go to col- lege. He would be no worse a farmer for having an A.M. after his name ; while the curriculum was common to all the professions. So it was resolved that, in the following winter, he should compete for a bursary. The communication that his fate lay in that 300 Alec Forbes of Howglen. direction, roused Alec still more. Now that an ulterior object rendered them attractive, he turned his attention to the classics with genuine earnest- ness; and, on a cloudy day in the end of October, found himself on the box-seat of the Royal Mail, with his trunk on the roof behind him, bound for a certain city whose advantages are not confined to the possession of a university. 301 CHAPTER XXXHI. - I FTER driving through long streets, brilliant -iJL *with shops of endless marvel, the coachman pulled up for the last time. It was a dull drizzly evening, with sudden windy gusts, and, in itself, dark as pitch. But Alec descended, cold and wet, in a brilliant light which flowed from the door of the hotel as if it had been the very essence of its structure. A porter took charge of his box, hoisted it on his back, and led the way to the ad- dress he gave him. Notwithstanding the drizzle, and the angry rushes of the wind round the street-corners, the foot-pavements were filled with men and women, moving in different directions, like a double row of busy ants. Through queer short cuts that terribly bewildered the way, the porter led him to the house, and pushing the door open, went up two flights of stone stairs and knocked at a door on the landing. Alec was shown into a room where 302 Akc Forbes of Howglen. a good fire was blazing away with a continuous welcome ; and when seated by it drinking his tea, he saw the whole world golden through the stained windows of his imagination. But his satisfaction gradually passed into a vague longing after something else. Would human nature be more perfect were it capable of being satisfied with cakes and ale ? Alec felt as if he had got to the borders of fairy-land, and some- thing was going to happen. A door would open and admit him into the secret of the world. But the door was so long in opening, that he took to un- packing his box ; when, as he jumped up to thank his mother for some peculiar remembrance of his likings, the whole affair suddenly changed to a re- hearsal of death ; and his longings for the remainder of the night were towards the past. He rose in the morning with the feeling re- vived, that something intense was going on all around. But the door into life generally opens behind us, and a hand is put forth which draws us in backwards. The sole wisdom for man or boy who is haunted with the hovering of unseen wings, with the scent of unseen roses, and the subtle en- ticements of " melodies unheard," is work. If he follow any of those, they will vanish. But if he work, they will come unsought, and, while they come, he will believe that there is a fairy-land, Alec Forbes of Howglen. 303 where poets find their dreams, and prophets are laid hold of by their visions. The idle beat their heads against its walls, or mistake the entrance, and go down into the dark places of the earth. Alec stood at the window, and peered down into the narrow street, through which, as in a channel between rocks burrowed into dwellings, ran the ceaseless torrent of traffic. He felt at first as if life at least had opened its gates, and he had been transported into the midst of its drama. But in a moment the show changed, turning first into a mean- ingless procession ; then into a chaos of conflicting atoms; reforming itself at last into an endlessly un- folding coil, no break in the continuity of which would ever reveal the hidden mechanism. For to no mere onlooker will Life any more than Fairy- land open its secret. A man must become an actor before he can be a true spectator. Weary of standing at the window, he went and wandered about the streets. To his country-bred eyes they were full of marvels which would soon be as common to those eyes as one of the furrowed fields on his father's farm. The youth who thinks the world his oyster, and opens it forthwith, finds no pearl therein. What is this nimbus about the new? Is the mar- vel a mockery ? Is the shine that of demon-gold ? No. It is a winged glory that alights beside the 304 Alec Forbes of Howglen. youth j and, having gathered his eyes to itself, away to a further perch ; there alights, there shines, thither entices. With outstretched hands the child of earth follows, to fall weeping at the foot of the gray disenchanted thing. But beyond, and again beyond, shines the lapwing of heaven not, as a faith- less generation thinks, to delude like them, but to lead the seeker home to the nest of the glory. Last of all, Alec was forced to take refuge in his books. Tlie competition fell on the next day, and he gained a small bursary. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. LONDON: PRINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUGVVELL, BLENHEIM HOIJSI JFORNIA LIBRARY geles ast date stamped below. A 000 1 74 445 7