Christine, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr [chromebook ebook reader txt] 📗

The second command stands clean against it. Come with us, Christine, and when we return I will give you the medicine your mother requires."

So the Domine and the Colonel led the way, and Angus and Christine followed. And when they reached the kirkyard, Angus said, "Stand here a moment, you dear, dear girl, and tell me how you could talk to my uncle in the high English of Aberdeen. It was beautiful! How did you acquire it?"

"Through long years of practice, Angus. I heard all Neil's lessons, and I always spoke the English, when I was with Neil. He didna like me to speak Scotch, because he was feared of spoiling his English. It was our home secret, for it would have been a great offense, if I had used English in the village. You can see that."

"Yes, of course."

"They dinna mind the Domine speaking English, yet if he particularly wants them to do anything, he is maist sure to drop into the most familiar Scotch."

"Neil must have had great influence over you, Christine," and Angus said the words disagreeably. He was feeling jealous of any influences but his own controlling Christine.

"Ay, I always did what he told me to do. Step softly, Angus. The Domine is talking."

When they reached the Domine's side, they found him turning the leaves of a very old Bible. "You see, Colonel," he said, "my father gave me The Book when I first came here. My ancestors have preached from it since A.D. 1616. It came to me through a long succession of good men. It has been my close, personal friend ever since. The finest Bible in Scotland could not take its place. There are pages in it that have been luminous to me. I have seen the glory shining out of the black letters. There are pages in it so sensitive to me that I feel a special spiritual emanation from them. I will be glad of a new cushion for The Book, for the one on which it now lies is worn and shabby, and that ought not to be."

"Then I cannot give you a new Bible, even for the church."

"Impossible! I could not preach from a new Bible. Colonel, it is not a book, it is a friend. We have secrets together. I have promises from it, that are yet owing me. It holds our confidences for thirty years. Sometimes I think it really speaks to me. Sometimes a glory seems to shine over the page I am reading, and my soul is so happy, that my tongue speaks aloud joyfully the shining words that have been given me."

"I would not separate you from such a Bible, Sir."

"I shall be grateful if you give me a new cushion for it. Nothing is too good for The Book."

Then they stood looking thoughtfully over the bare place. It had an old, past look. It was plain and moldy, and needed repairing in every way. The Colonel made a note of what was required in the nave of the kirk, and then glanced upward. The gallery appeared to be in still worse condition, but in front of it there was a wonderfully beautiful model of a full-rigged ship.

"Ah!" exclaimed the Colonel, "a ship instead of a clock! Is that right, Sir?"

"Quite. I put it there. It was made by a sailor lad born in Culraine, who came here to die. Long, painful, hopeless days were soothed by the fashioning of that miniature ship. All the village watched its progress, all felt an interest in the dying lad. He finished it on the eve of his death. Young and old came to bid him good-by, and to see his white, trembling hands dress the topmost spar, and fly the blue Peter. 'I am just about to sail,' he said, 'sae I'll up wi' the blue Peter. That means I'm ready to go. Let her carry it till I'm safely hame.' I put a new Peter on the top-mast last year," said the Domine, and his eyes filled with tears, as he looked steadfastly at the emblem.

"We seem to expect a clock in the front of the gallery, Sir. Can a ship take its place?"

"Nothing, nothing, could be more appropriate. The favorite image of the church in all ages has been a ship, or a boat. The first preaching was connected with a ship, for while Noah builded the ark, he preached repentance. The holiest object of the Jewish tabernacle was the ark, made like a boat. All Christ's known life is associated with boats. The favorite image of the early persecuted church was a boat beaten by the winds and waves, and our own churches preserve everywhere this world-wide idea, by calling the body of the church the nave, from navis, a ship."

"That is very interesting information, Sir," said Angus.

"You are going to Venice, Ballister; you will find many of the oldest churches in Venice built in the shape of a ship; and near Lisbon there is a chapel of marble, with pillars like masts, and its sails and cordage carved on the walls. Is not this life a voyage to the eternal shores, and what could typify our safety better than a ship with Christ for the captain of our salvation? You see, I will still be preaching. I make no excuse."

"None is necessary. We are glad to listen."

"Come now, Christine, and I will give you medicine for your mother. Gentlemen, in a few minutes I will return here."

When they were alone the Domine said: "Christine, you did wisely, and your speech was correct and beautiful, but I would advise you to keep your English for special occasions."

"Sir, not even my father and mother know I can drop the Scotch. When the time comes to tell them, I----"

"Yes, yes. And the villagers? It might be an offense."

"You are right, Sir."

"You speak as if you had learned to speak at the Maraschal."

"Yes, sir. I learned it from Neil. We always talked it together, for Neil hated the dialect, and I made a bargain wi' him. I promised to talk as he taught me, if he would keep the circumstance from everyone. He said he would, and he has stood by his promise. Sae have I, but I hae been talking English nearly five years now."

"You wonderful woman! Then this morning you gave yourself away."

"I wanted to do it--I couldna resist the want. And it was only to you, and the twa Ballisters. Nane o' you three will go blabbing. Anyway, when Neil leaves the Maraschal, he will care little how I talk. He'll hae finer folk than Christine, to crack and claver wi'."

"He will not find finer folk easily. Now run home as quickly as you can, and prepare your father and mother for the Ballister visit. I will come with him, and ask your mother to have a cup of tea by the fire for us."

"Will Angus be wi' ye, Sir?"

"No, he will not."

"Why?"

"Because I am going to send him to the factor's, and also to Lawyer Semple's. You need not be looking for him. Try and leave well alone. It is hard to make well better, and it is very easy to make it worse. If you hurry a little, I think you may be home by twelve o'clock."

So Christine hurried a little, and reached home by the noon hour. Her dinner was ready, and her father very unexpectedly was sitting by the fireside.

"Feyther," she said, "I hope you arena sick," and then she smiled at the inquiry, for his broad, rosy face was the very picture of robust health.

"Sick! Na, na, lassie! I'm weel enou', but Norman was feeling badly. His arm hurts him sairly, and I was noticing that the fish had gane to deep waters. We'll hae a storm before long."

Then Christine served the dinner waiting for her, and while they were eating, she told the great news of a school for Culraine. Ruleson was quickly enthusiastic. Margot, out of pure contradiction, deplored the innovation.

The walk to the toun, she said, was gude for the childer. If they were too tired to learn after it, it showed that learning was beyond their capabilities, and that they would be better making themsel's usefu' at hame. And what were women with large families to do without their big lads to bring water to wash wi', and their half-grown lasses to tak' care o' the babies, and help wi' the cooking and cleaning?

"But, Margot," said Ruleson, "think o' the outcome for the childer----Think o'----"

"Ye dinna require to tell me the outcome. As soon as the childer get what they ca' an education, they hurry awa' to some big city, or foreign country, and that's the end o' them. Settle a school here, and I'll tell you the plain result--in a few years we'll hae neither lads nor boats, and the lasses now growing up will hae to go to Largo, or to some unkent place for husbands. Gie our lads books, and you'll ne'er get them into the boats. That's a fact! I'm tellin' you!"

Between Margot and Christine the argument continued all afternoon, but Ruleson went to the foot of the hill, and looked at the land proposed for the site of the future school. He was glad that it was his land, and he was so much of a natural poet that he could see the white building, and the boys and girls trooping in and out of its wide doors. And the vision of the children playing together there was so clear to his imagination, that he carefully stepped off the acres he supposed would give them sufficient room for their games; and then shutting his eyes that he might see better, he decided that it was too small, and so stepped off another acre.

"I'll ne'er scrimp the childer, God bless them!" he thought, "for it will be a happy day to James Ruleson, when he sees them runnin' to these acres wi' books and balls in their hands."

Then he went home, and Margot said something about his Sunday claes, but James did not heed her. He put on a clean shirt, and a suit of blue flannel. His shirt was open at the throat, his feet were in boots that reached nearly to his knees. But he had a grandly satisfied look, and the beautiful courtesy of men who as a rule think only good of their neighbors, and do only good to them.

Margot, like Christine, was in her fisher-costume, with little accentuations in Christine's case; but Margot was the very mate for the splendid man she called "her man." Scotch, from head to feet, douce and domestic, yet cleverer than James, though obedient to him--a good woman, fit for the work of this world, and not forgetful concerning a better one.

Keeping in mind the Domine's directions about a cup of tea, Christine laid the table with their best linen and china, and though no difference was made in the food provided, Christine saw that it was well cooked. After all, it was quite an event for James Ruleson, and in the outcome of it he expected to realize one of the greatest pleasures that could come to him.

About five o'clock the Domine and Ballister arrived. They entered a room full of the feeling of home. It was clean, and white as a snow drift, and there was a bright fire blazing on the hearth. The covered table