A Ne'er-do-weel. A novel

Chapter I

Yet I am here, a chosen sample, To show thy grace is great and ample I'm here a pillar in thy temple, Strong as a rock, A guide, a buckler, an example, To a' thy flock." Bubns. The Rev. Robert Jamieson was considered a strong man by his flock and the country-side generally; and indeed, if narrowness of mind, hardness of head, and force of denunciation (as applied to theological opponents) are to be ac counted as strength, he was a very Samson. His wife, on the contrary, was an ultra emotional personage, whose tender susceptibilities were perpetually in evidence. But she had no real depth of character, and, like a leaky cistern, was always wasting her reserve of feeling, and never prepared with a serviceable supply. Superficial observers were prone to wonder by what possible affinity two such utterly anta- B gonistic natures could have been drawn within the narrow circle of the wedding-ring, or why, being therein, they did not fly off at a tangent.

But although we do not desire to impugn the veracity of the old saw, which asserts that ' Birds of a feather flock together,' we maintain that dis similarity of character is a bond of union, where one will is indisputably the stronger. Now Robert Jamieson, in spite of his narrowness, or perhaps because of it — since it led to the concentration of his energies — was a man of marked individuality. He was gifted with in domitable perseverance, a fairly cultivated mind, and, above all, with an unfaltering belief in him self. These qualities, to which he added a certain rough eloquence, had led to his rapid advancement in the Church of Scotland, of which he was a member ; and, whilst still comparatively a young man, he was selected out of a number of candi dates as minister and spiritual guide of Kirkwell, a populous township on the north-east coast of Scotland.

Having thus attained the summit of his ambition — a pulpit from whence he could send forth his innermost thoughts clothed in language of his own selection, and a flock willing to own him as pastor and leader — the young minister for the first time felt himself at liberty to consider the material side of his nature. The Manse attached to his church was spacious, and the stipend, to a man of his frugal habits, appeared princely. What more natural then, than that the hints darkly thrown out by the elders (prompted by their wives), to the effect that it would be more seemly for their minister to enter the married state, should have rapidly borne fruit? Of women and their ways, Robert Jamieson was as utterly ignorant as he was of all purely mun dane pleasures. Thrown at an early age almost entirely upon his own resources, it was only by practising the most rigid economy that he had been able to meet the expenses of his University curriculum ; consequently it would have seemed little less than sacrilege to waste one hour of the time of which he was so well able to estimate the exact value, in junketings or frivolities, either with his fellow-students or still less with ' a parcel of feckless lasses,' as he collectively and ungallantly designated the opposite sex.

Now, however, that his singleness of aim had met with its reward, • he was more disposed to regard these ' weaker vessels ' with a sort of pitying indulgence, not entirely devoid of curiosity. From a Scriptural point of view, matrimony was to be commended. Then, too, a successful man naturally desires to perpetuate his name and fame, and one's own flesh and blood ranks next to the rarely attainable marble, for such a purpose. Thus he argued within himself, and as a corollary, a help-mate became a necessity, not merely a luxury or an ornamental addition to his house hold. With a man of his disposition, action habitually treads in the footsteps of thought. Believing firmly in his own infallibility, to arrive at a mental solution of any problem to his own satisfaction, was to solve it for all time, in tbe one and only sense in which it was practicable.

Consequently no sooner had he persuaded himself_or allowed himself to be persuaded — that he ought to marry, than he set about finding a wife. Most young men in his situation would have sought counsel and assistance of some lady friend. Not so the new minister, for although (as he had reason to believe) the entire female portion of his congregation was ready to supply the article, either personally or by proxy, and, had he expressed the wish, he might have 'thrown the handkerchief to one of a dozen probationers, he kept his purpose closely locked in his breast, and determined to choose for himself. Now, as an abstract resolu tion we can only applaud his decision, and yet it must be admitted that for one so unacquainted with even the most rudimentary idiosyncrasies of the fair sex, the experiment was a risky one. ' Fortune,' however, ' favours the brave,' and, as we have indicated, the result was not altogether unsatisfactory.

His choice fell eventually on a Miss Margaret Brown, daughter of a respectable bookseller in Glasgow, who, at the time of the inception of our minister's matrimonial project, was on a visit to some relations residing at Kirkwell. Mr. Jamie son saw her at church, and noted with approval her devotional attitude, and the rapt attention with which she listened to his lengthy discourses. Later on he sought an introduction, and, finding the maiden of winsome appearance and most deferential in manner, he instituted (like the prudent man that he was) certain inquiries as to her prospects, and these proving satisfactory, he lost no time in proposing for and securing her hand. As our history is concerned less with the minister and his docile wife than with their descendants, we do not propose to dwell on the earlier details of their wedded life.

Suffice it to say that according to his lights the Rev. Robert was a kind and well meaning husband. But the language and ways of lovers were to him as Hebrew or Sanscrit are to the unlearned ; he appraised sound doctrine far above ardent affection, aud, being himself un demonstrative, promptly repressed any attempt on the part of his spouse to comport herself as a loving and beloved bride. " I'd have ye mind, Marg'ret, that ye're now a minister's wife, and as such, bound to set an example of decorum and propriety to the rest of the flock," he remarked almost sternly when, on returning from their brief honeymoon, she desired to inaugurate her entry into the Manse as its mistress, by the display of a few innocent coquetries and girlish outbursts of affection. Not unnaturally, this rebuff called forth a flood of tears, but as these failed to move her lord and master as signally as her caresses, she wisely decided to abandon (at any rate with him) all attempts at self-assertion, having vainly essayed her whole armoury of weapons of attack and defence.

Fortunately for her, Mrs. Jamieson was not endowed with any great depth of sensibility. Laughter and tears were alike near the surface, and the one was often as little expressive as the other, of anything but a passing phase of nervous excitement. Thus, although she deemed herself the victim of a cruel misfortune in being wedded to so unsympathetic a man, she soon settled down into the position which he arbitrarily assigned to her. Nevertheless it is a ' long call ' from resigna tion to contentment, and the birth of her first child came most opportunely to relieve the mono tony of the third year of her married life. Here was a new toy, something to pet and caress, to fuss and fume over without fear of reproach ; and indeed never was infant so subjected to 'bless ings in disguise,' in the form of maternal over solicitude.

Thanks, however, to a good constitu tion, and the restraining influences of Mistress Anderson — erst the minister's own nurse, and now fulfilling similar functions towards his pro geny — little Bob was neither smothered nor boiled, nor stuffed to death, although often on the verge of an untimely end. Whether he could have ultimately survived all the perils of his position is questionable, but that some two years after his appearance, his nose was, metaphorically speaking, put out of joint by the advent of another baby — also a boy. After her second lying-in Mrs. Jamieson was very ill ; indeed, for some weeks her life was despaired of. When she recovered, her anxiety and affection seemed to be centred on the new-comer, who was a puny weakling compared with her first-born, and Bob was, happily for him, left more to the ministra tions of Dame Nature, and to such attentions as the more constant Mrs. Anderson found time to bestow upon her prime favourite.

His brother Athol meanwhile succeeded to a full share of injudicious coddling and petting, and as no later arrival came to oust him from his position, he grew up in an atmosphere morally as well as physically unhealthy, and his character suffered accordingly. Like most self-opinionated people, Mr. Jamie son held a special theory of his own relating to the training of the young, and naturally reduced it to practice in his own family. And this theory consisted in allowing the mother sole and unques tioned control over her children until they had attained the age of seven, when he took their education into his own hands, and no longer admitted maternal interference in any shape or form. Whatever the theoretical merits ofthe minister's system, its effect on his children's characters was more startling than beneficial.

The violent revo lution of discipline that awaited each in his turn, as he doffed the infantile petticoat and the govern ment pertaining thereto, and appeared awe-stricken and trembling in his father's study, to receive his toga virilis in the shape of a lengthy lecture brist ling with Scriptural quotations, served to destroy any cognitive ideas which the youthful intelligence had managed to assimilate in the course of its nursery training. Bob, the first-born, possessed a fund of high spirits, which neither admonition nor punishment could permanently destroy. Repressed they were for a time, but only to burst forth with redoubled vigour, and to find vent in acts of mischief when his father's back was turned, although his own was certain to smart for them afterwards ; for the minister, who adhered strongly to the doctrine of ' original sin ' and other Calvinistic beliefs, had unwavering faith in the efficacy of the rod as a means of correcting youthful depravity.

As a rule, children — even at a very tender age — are im bued with strong notions of justice, and as long as Master Bob felt that he was only reaping what he had sown, however much he deprecated the pain, he submitted to his punishments stoically, if not cheerfully. But when, owing to Athol's cowardice and untruthfulness, and his mother's open partisanship, he was continually made to suffer for his brother's misdeeds, the boy's out raged feelings led him into open rebellion against the paternal authority. As is commonly the case in such matters, the catastrophe was precipitated by a trivial occur rence. Mrs. Jamieson, who rarely trusted her beloved Athol out of her sight, was one day in duced by force of circumstances to leave him for a few hours in charge of Bob, then a lad of four teen. " Now, whatever ye do, keep out of mischief yerself, and take care that yer darling brother doesn't come to any harm," was her parting in junction.

Bob, of course, promised to prove himself worthy of the trust reposed in him, and, being fond of his brother in spite of his many unamiable propensities, proceeded gleefully to institute games for his amusement. Without doubt there is a great charm in re sponsibility, and Bob, in the first flush of so novel a situation, felt quite virtuous and brimful of kindliness towards his charge. But responsibility without authority is a delusion and a snare, as poor Bob was to learn to his cost. Athol's innate selfishness had been fostered by his mother's in judicious partiality to such an extent, that he had come to regard his elder brother in the light of an enemy and a rival. He envied his superior strength and prowess in all out-door amusements, and his greatest incentive to study — after the fear of his father's wrath — was the desire of surpassing his senior in intellectual attainments, a by-no-means impossible feat, for Bob, although not deficient in brains, was naturally lazy and easy-going ; besides which, his lessons were too intimately associated with the rod to ever become a labour of love.

Mr. Jamieson was far too upright a man to indulge knowingly in favouritism ; but even the wisest of fathers may be incapable of judging the true motives that prompt his children's actions ; and the minister, finding his younger son teach able and obedient (which Bob certainly was not), may be forgiven for a growing disposition to re gard the latter as a ne'er-do-weel, and to adjudge him, unheard, the sole author of any outbreaks against his authority in which both the boys were concerned. Now Athol, although constitutionally weak and cowardly, was none the less subject to the mis chievous fits inherent in boys' nature, but he had strong personal objections to paying the penalty of his peccadilloes, which took their rise partly from a natural shrinking from bodily pain, and partly from the desire to maintain his good reputation with his father, whom he feared more than he loved.

To sum up the boy's character, his objec tions to wrong-doing, like the ancient Spartans', began and ended in the probability of his being found out. Experience had taught him that, in Bob's company, he personally could do no wrong, or, in other words, that Bob was sure to have to bear the brunt of the blame. Small wonder then, that when the opportunity presented itself he elected to play the part of the serpent, combining, as it did, a maximum of enjoyment with a minimum of risk. Outside the Manse garden lay a strip of moor land, and on this the boys were forbidden to venture alone, as being the resort of the lowest characters of the town. Naturally, being for bidden ground, it became the El Dorado of their boyish visions. For Bob, who was but too accustomed to break bounds and to pay the penalty of it, this particular spot had lost most of its pristine attractions.

Not so with Athol, who had long desired, but never dared, to sally forth in search of adventures. A sudden temptation seized him. How nice it would be to go there now under Bob's protection ! by which he understood not only the defence of his brother's vigorous right arm if they were molested, but also his moral breadth of back, which would suffice to bear the blame for both in case of detection. " Bob," he said, in his most persuasive tones, " won't the blae-berries be getting ripe now on the moor? I'm tired o' playing at all these silly games ; wouldn't it be bonnie if only we might just scramble over the fence and gather a bonnet f ul ? " " Bonnie for ye, maybe," replied Bob, contemptuously, " who've got yer mammie's apron to hide behind in case of a shindy ; but it's no a game that I care to engage in for others' pleasure, I can tell ye, my lad."

" But where's the harm ? " urged Athol, pettishly. '^Where's the harm in half the things for which I get skelps ? If ye're of sic an inquisitive turn, I'd advise ye to argue the point with father ; mayhap he'd convince ye, if he applied the same argument to ye that he's sae fond of usingr with me ! " " Ah ! ah ! Ye're afraid of the rod ! " laughed Athol. "Haud yer silly tongue, ye chattering gouk," cried Bob, exasperated by this insinuation. " It's no the rod, but yer mother's heckling that I'm afeerd of. If she hadna left me in charge o' ye, I'd soon show ye whether I'm afeerd or not." " Well, I'm going, whether or no," replied Athol, seized with a sudden desire to outdo his senior, and climbing over the fence as he spoke. "Come back at once, ye imp o' mischief," shouted Bob, taken by surprise and hardly knowing how to act.

But Athol, being safely landed on the other side, and feeling confident in his running powers, only turned to shout a defiant " Catch me if ye can," and careered off across the common, followed by Bob, whose instincts of the chase were readily aroused. Notwithstanding his start, Athol soon found himself being rapidly overhauled by his irate pur suer; and his fit of bravado having meanwhile evaporated, was succeeded by a dread of the consequences of his action that almost paralyzed his limbs and senses. In his wild fear he paid no heed to his course, and suddenly found himself confronted by a deep wide ditch, full of muddy water. He stopped short in dismay, but hearing Bob's shout of triumph close to his ear, made a despairing effort to clear the obstacle. At the same moment his brother stretched out his hand to lay hold of him, but only succeeded in baulking his spring and causing him to fall prone into the water.

It goes without saying, that when he emerged with Bob's help, the adventurous youngster pre sented the appearance commonly ascribed to a drowned rat, and that having cleared his mouth and eyes of the oozy compound, he proceeded to ' lard the lean earth ' with copious tears. Arrived at the Manse, the sorrowful procession was met in the hall by Mrs. Jamieson, who was in the act of quitting her husband's study, whither she had rushed wildly for information as to the whereabouts of her darling, whom she missed im mediately on her return. " My bairn, my poor sweet bairn, what in the Lord's name have they been doing to ye ? " she wailed in hysterical tones as she pressed him in her arms, regardless of the damage she was thereby inflicting on her best gown. Then, as Athol maintained a sulky silence, she turned fiercely on Bob, who stood by grinning broadly at the discomfiture of the immaculate Athol.

"This is some of yer mischief, I make no doubt ! This is how ye take charge of the puir laddie ! " Bob's lip curled scornfully, it was so seldom that he had the moral satisfaction of feeliuohim self in the right, that he wished to savour the full enjoyment of his novel situation. " Ask Athol, mother, he can tell ye all about it, if he likes ; besides, ye know ye always credit him before me." " An' well I may, ye wicked, ungodly lad ! " cried Mrs. Jamieson, angered by the truth of the accusation. " I don't need any telling to convince me that it's ye who've brought him to this." Then turning to Athol, " Where have ye been, my bonnie lad ? Tell yer poor mother just all about it, and don't be afraid of that graceless loon, we'll leave his father to settle with him." But his mother's certainty as to his innocence made it all the more difficult for Athol to confess that he alone was guilty, and so he continued to cry and sob instead of answering.

" Well, this much I can tell ye for him," inter posed Bob, still on the grin, "he's been in a ditch on the moor, and the water has wetted his garments, and yer ain, too, apparently ! " Her attention being thus rudely and suddenly called to the personal damage she had sustained, Mrs. Jamieson gave vent to her feelings in a loud shriek, which brought the minister to his study door in no very amiable frame of mind at this noisy interruption to the composition of his next Sabbath's sermon. " What in the name of goodness is all this caterwauling about ? " he inquired, sternly. A sudden silence ensued. Mrs. Jamieson smothered her exclamations of grief and wrath, Athol gulped down his tears, Bob alone remained cool and unmoved. " Well, Margaret, I'm waiting for an explana tion," said Mr. Jamieson presently.

His wife hesitated a moment. Like Aladdin when the Genius ofthe Ring appeared in answer to his summons, she began to quail before the power she had invoked to her aid. Her first thought was to exculpate Athol. "The puir bairn has had a misfortune," she faltered. "He's had a sousing, I perceive," replied the minister, grimly. " How did it come about ? " Again Mrs. Jamieson hesitated. To do her justice, she was loth to bring down his father's wrath upon Bob, although she firmly believed him guilty. She cast an imploring glance at him, hoping that he would be moved to confess, and therebv avert the coming storm ; but Bob was in a perverse mood, and only grinned in a 'de'il may care ' sort of way that roused his mother's dormant resentment. " He fell into a ditch on the moor," she said at last.

" And how did he come there at all ? " asked her husband in a cold, judicial tone, which be tokened scant mercy for the offender. Mrs. Jamieson looked appealingly first at Bob and then at Athol, but both remained silent. " I left him in charge of Bob." " Indeed. And I presume that Robert was fully aware of my strict prohibition with regard to the moor? If my memory serves me right, it is scarcely a fortnight since I was compelled to punish him for venturing out of bounds on this very place," and the minister looked angrily to wards his first-born, as if inviting his defence. But Bob would not speak. In the first place he was hurt at the ready assumption that he was in fault, and secondly, his sense of honour forbade his being Athol's accuser. Another uncomfortable silence, followed by an intimation from Mr. Jamieson, that if he could not discover the actual culprit he should be compelled to assume that both were equally guilty, and act accordingly.

This brought Mrs. Jamieson to the fore at once. The idea of her poor, delicate Athol having to suffer condign punishment, to which he was totally unaccustomed, was more than she could bear. " Bob, ye know it was yer doing ; why don't ye be a good lad and tell yer father, and then perhaps he won't be so angry with ye." "You know, wife, I am never angry with my children," said the minister, gravely. " When they do wrong, I make them suffer for the wrong that they have done, for their own good, and be cause it is so ordered in the Scriptures." " Why don't ye ask Athol ? " was the only reply Bob vouchsafed to his mother's frantic appeal. "Can't ye see the puir bairn is quite beside himself with cold and fright? Ye, as his elder brother, should speak for him ; but if ye won't, I must. Ye don't deny that he was left in yer charge, and if he went where he shouldn't, it was because ye led him there.

Isn't it so, my lad ? " asked the infatuated mother, turning to her pet. With the fear of a caning before his eyes, Athol's small endowment of moral courage en tirely forsook him. He nodded his head and broke into a fresh flood of tears. " Is that the truth ? " asked his father, sternly. Again he nodded his head, hoping to escape the guilt of a spoken lie ; but this did not satisfy Mr. Jamieson. " Hold up your head, lad, and answer me Yes or No," he insisted. " Yes," said the boy, and then, without waiting his father's reply, he dashed upstairs, followed by his mother. "Come into my study, Robert," said Mr. Jamieson, leading the way and locking the door after him. Then, taking a cane from a con venient corner, he turned to Bob. " I'm about to flog you for gross disobedience and neglect of duty.

Have you anything to say for yourself? " Poor Bob was boiling over with righteous indig nation, and all he could find voice to say was — " It's a wicked lie from beginning to end ; I had nothing to do with his getting wet," which he blurted out so eagerly that it sounded more like the confusion of guilt than the assurance of con scious innocence. At any rate Mr. Jamieson so construed it, and made reply — " I'm truly grieved that a son of mine should dare to add the crime of untruthfulness to that of disobedience. If you persist in your falsehood I shall be obliged to double your punishment." " Father, ye dare not, 1 won't submit to it ! " cried Bob, too angry to feel fear or anything but a burning sense of injustice. Had he but stopped then, and offered a calm explanation of the occurrence, it is possible that the minister might have been convinced, for he was momentarily shaken in his belief by the boy's vehement dis claimer.

But Bob was worked up to fever heat, and instead of striving to exculpate himself he wound up with the threat that he would repay Athol blow for blow for the chastisement he was about to receive. This unlooked for defiance was something altogether outside Mr. Jamieson's experience. He thought the boy must be temporarily possessed, and not wishing to punish him in the heat of his own anger, he laid the rod aside, and taking Bob by the arm led him to his bedroom, where he locked him in for the night. The next morning Athol was confined to his bed by a feverish cold, the effects of which Mrs. Jamieson purposely exaggerated to her husband, in order to avoid any further investigation into the affair of the previous evening. Now Mr. Jamieson had at all times the greatest difficulty in suspending his judgment, and delay in the present case, when his parental authority was at stake, was most irksome to him.

His intention over-night had been to confront the two boys, and by this means — or if necessary by sterner measures — to elicit the truth, and he felt that it would be unfair to Bob to keep him under suspicion for an indefinite period. Accordingly, the culprit was summoned down to his father's study, and once more ordered to justify his conduct if he could. But hunger, and a night's brooding over his wrongs, had not tended to soften Bob's rebellious mood. Whilst still strenuously maintaining his own innocence, he declined to directly inculpate Athol, and as Mr. Jamieson, who was accustomed to draw a hard and fast line between right and wrong, could make no allowance for boyish notions of honour, he was convinced that the lad was prevaricating, and treated him accordingly. This naturally did not tend to smooth matters, and when at last Mr. Jamieson, provoked beyond endurance by what he regarded as his son's obstinacy, threatened to send him to a boardc ing school unless he made instantaneous con fession and promise of repentance, Bob retorted that " He might send him where he pleased, and the sooner the better."

Whereupon he was rele gated to close confinement in his room, in hopeless disgrace, whilst his father deliberated on the best means of carrying out his threat. Mrs. Jamieson was so much occupied in nursing her beloved Athol that she scarcely heard, or if she knew, paid no heed to what was in store for poor Bob. Her husband had never been accustomed to consult her on matters of importance, and in this case he saw no reason to depart from his rule. After due consideration, he wrote to his father-in-law in Glasgow, in whose judgment he placed some confidence, asking him to recom mend a good and not too expensive school, suitable to a boy of Bob's age ; and on receipt of his reply, he immediately opened communications with the head of the establishment recommended by Mr. Brown, which resulted in his deciding to banish the youthful rebel from the Manse at the end of the week.

Tbe first intimation that his wife had of this portentous change, was the request that she would see that Bob's wardrobe was in fit order for a prolonged sojourn away from home. This led to some feeble and utterly un availing remonstrances on her part, and to some tolerably plain speaking from Mistress Anderson, who had a shrewd suspicion of the truth, which failed equally to shake the minister's decision. The fiat had gone forth, and as Athol, the only person who could have led to its reversal, held his tongue and carefully kept out of the way of awkward questionings, Bob was exiled in due course and in dire disgrace.

Chapter II

" Youth thinks itself the goal of each old life ; Age has but travelled from a far-off time Just to be ready for youth's service." George Emot. Foe an entire year poor Bob remained under his father's ban. Not only was he forbidden to return home during the holidays, but he was debarred from all communication with the inhabitants of the Manse. " When you see the error of your ways, and are prepared to ask forgiveness in a becoming spirit, you will be received like the prodigal of the Scriptures, with open arms; but till then I'd have you mind that it would be contrary to the position I hold as a leader and instructor of others for me to have any dealings with an unrepentant evil-doer." This was the minister's parting exhortation, and the boy knew his father's character too well to dream of attempting to obtain any mitigation of this harsh sentence, short of the absolute submission which honour and pride alike forbad him to tender.