A Son of the Soil Vol1

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IBHAliY

OF THE U N I V E. R_ 5 1 TY Of ILLINOIS

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Chapter II

•* Ye saw the young gentleman safe to the pier] He's a bonnie lad, though maybe no as weel-mannered as ane would like to see," said Mrs. Campbell. " Keep me ! such a way to name his father — Bairns maun be awfu' neglected in such a grand house — aye left wi' servants, and never trained to trust their bits of secrets to father or mother. Laddies," said the farmer's wife, with a little solemnity, looking across the sleepLag baby upon the four heads of different sizes which bent over their supper at the table before her, " mind you aye, that, right or wrong, them that's maist interested in whatever befalls you is them that belongs to you — maist ready to praise if ye'vo done weel, and excuse you if ye've done wrang. I hope you were civil to the strange eailant, Colin, my man ?"

"Oh, ay," said young Colin, not without a movement of conscience; but he did not think it necessary to enter into details.

" When a callant like that is piidefu', and looks as if he thought himself better than other folk, I hope my laddies are no the ones to mind," said the mistress of liamore. " It shows he hasna had the advantages that might have been expected. It's nae harm to you, but a gTeat ileal o' harm to him. Ye dinna ken how weel off you are, you boys," said the mother, making a little address to them as they sat over their supper ; Little Johnnie, whose porridge was too hot for him, turned towards her the round, Avondering black eyes, which beamed out like a pair of stray stars from hi3 little freckled face, and

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through his wisps of flaxen hair, bleached white by rain and sun ; but the three others went on very steadily with their supper, and did not disturb themselves; "there's aye youT father at hand ready to tell ye whatever you want to ken — no like yon poor callant, that would have to gang to a tutor, or a servant, or something worse; no that he's an ill laddie; but I'm aye keen to see ye behave yoursels like gentlemen, and yon wasna ony great specimen, as it was very easy to see."

After this there was a pause, for none of the boys were disposed to enter into that topic of conversation. After a little period of silence, during which the spoons made a diversion and filled up the vacancy, they began to find their tongues again.

" It's awfu' wet up on the hill," said Archie, the second boy, " and they say the glass is aye falling, and the corn on the Barnton fields has been out this three weeks, and Dugald Macfarlane, he says it's sprouting — and oh, mother!"

" "What is it, Archie 1"

" The new minister came by when I was down at the smiddy with the brown mare. You never saw such a red head. It is red enough to set the kirk on fire. They were saying at the smiddy that naebody would stand such a colour of hair — it's waur than no preaching weel — and I said I thought that too," said the enterprising Archie ; " for I'm sure I never mind ony o' the sermon, but I couldna forget such red hair."

" And I saw him too," said little Johnnie ; " he clapped me on the head, and said how was my mammaw ; and I said we never ca'ed onybody mammaw, but just mother; and then he clapped me again, and said I was a good boy. What for was I a good boy?" said Johnnie, who was of an inquiring and philosophical frame of mind, "because I said we didna say mammaw ? or just because it was me?"

" Because he's a kind man, and has a kind thought for even m A So?i of the Soil. 13

the little bairns," said Mrs. Campbell, " and it wasna' like a boy o* mine to say an idle word against him. Do you flunk they know better at the smiddy, Archie, than here 1 Poor gentleman," said the good woman, " to be a' this time weary in* and waitin', and his heart yearnin' within him to get a kirk, and do his Master's work ; and then to ha'e a parcel of haverels set up and make a faction against him because he has a red head. It makes ane think shame o' human nature and Scotch folk baith."

"But he canna preach, mother," said Colin, breaking silence almost for the first time ; " the red head is only an excuse."

" I dinna like excuses," said his mother, " and I never kent before that you were a judge o' preaching. You may come to ken better about it yoursel before a' 's done. I canna but think there's something wrang when the like o' that can be," said Mrs. Campbell \ « he's studied, and he's learned Latin and Greek, and found out a' the ill that can be said about Scripture, and a' the lies that ever have been invented against the truth ; and he's been brought up to be a minister a' his days, and knows what's expected. But as soon as word gangs about that the Earl has promised him our kirk, there's opposition raised. Xo' that onybody kens ony ill of him ; but there's the smith, and the wright, and Thomas Scott o' Lintwearie, maun lay their heads thegether — and first they say he canna preach, and then that he'll no' visit, and at least, if a'thing else fails, that he has a red head. If it was a new doctor that was coming, wha would be heeding about the colour o' his hair? but it's the minister that's to stand by our deathbeds, and baptize our bairns, and guide us in the right way : and we're no to let him come in peace, or sit down in comfort. If we canna keep him from getting the kirk, we can make him miserable when he does get it. Eh, bairns ; I think shame ! and I'm no' so sure as I am in maist things," said the farmer's wife, looking up with a

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consciousness of her husband's presence, that the maister himsel— "

"AVeel, I'm aye for popular rights," said Colin of Eamore. He had just come in, and had been standing behind taking off his big coat, on which the rain glistened, and listening to all that his wife said "But if Colin was a man and a minister," said the farmer with a gleam of humour, as he drew his chair towards tlie fire, "and had to tight his way to a kirk like a 1 the young men now-a-days, I wouldna say I would like it. They might object to his big mouth; and you've ower muckle a mouth yoursel', Jeanie," continued big Colin, looking admiringly at the comely mother of his boys. " 1 might tell them wha he took it from, and that if he had as grand a flow of language as his mother, there would be nae fear o' him. As for the red head, the Earl himsel 's a grand example, and if red hair's right in an earl, it canna be immoral in a minister; but Jeanic, though you're an awfu' revolutionary, ye maunna meddle with the kirk, nor take away popular rights."

" I'm no gauu to be led into an argument," said the mistress, with a slightly vexed expression ; " but I'm far from sure about the kirk. After you've opposed the minister's coming in, and held committees upon him, and offered objections, and done your best to worry the life out o' him, and make him disgusted baith at himsel' and you, do you think after that ye can attend to him when you're weel, and send for him when you're sick, vri' the right feelings % But I'm no gaun to speak ony mail about the minister. Is the com in yet, Colin, from the East Park ? Efc, bless me ! and it was cut before this wean was born 1"

" "We'll have but a poor harvest after a'," said the farmer ; " it's a disappointment, but it canna be lielpit It's strange how something aye comes in, to keep a man down when he thinks he's to have a bit margin ; but wo must jog on, Jeanie, my woman. As long as wo have bread to eat, let us be thankful.

//.I A Son of the Soil. 15

And as for Colin, it needna make ony difference. Glasgow's no so far off, but be can still get his parritcb out of the family meal ; and as long as he's careful and diligent we'll try and fend for him. It's hard work getting bread out of our hillside," said big Colin ; "but ye may have a different life from your father's, lad, if you take heed to the opportunities in your hands."

"A* the opportunities in the world," said Colin the younger, in a burst, " wouldna give me a chance like yon English fellow. Everything comes ready to him. It's no fair. I'll have to make up wi' him first, and then beat him— and so I would," said the boy, with a glow on his face, and a happy unconsciousness of contradicting himself, "if I had the chance."

41 "Well," said big Colin, "that's just ane o' the things we have to count upon in our way of living. It's little credit to a man to be strong," said the former, stretching his great arms with a natural consciousness of power, " unless he has that to do that tries it. It's harder work to me, you may be sure, to get a pickle corn off the hillside, than for the English farmers down in yon callant's country to draw wheat and fatness out o' their furrows. But I think mysel' nane the worse a man," continued Colin of Earnore, with a smile ; " Sir Thomas, as the laddie ca's him, gangs wading over the heather a' day after the grouse and the paitricks ; he thinks he's playing, himsel', but he's as hard at work as I am. "We're a' bluid relations, though the family likeness whiles lies deep and is hard to find. A man maun be fighting wi' something. If it's no the dour earth that refuses him bread, it's the wet bog and the heather that comes atween him and his sport, as he ca's it. Xever you mind wha's before you on the road. Make np to him, Colin. Many a day hell stray out o' the path gathering straws to divert himsel', when you've naething to do but to push on."

" Eh, but I wouldna like a laddie o' mine to think," interrupted his mother, eagerly, " that there's nae guid but getting

[CHAP.

on in the world. Til not have my bairns learn ony such lesson ; laddies," said the farmer's wife, in all the solemnity of her innocence, "mind you this ahoon a*. You might be princes the morn, and no as good men as your father. There's nae Sir Thomases, nor Earls, nor Lord Chancellors I ever heard tell o',

that was niair thought upon nor wi' better reason "

At this moment Jess entered from the kitchen, to suggest that it was bedtime.

" And lang enough for the mistress to be sitting up, and she so delicate," said the sole servant of the house. "If ye had been in your ain room wf a fire and a book to read, it would have been wiser-like, than among a' tliae noisy laddies, wi' the wean and a seam as if yc were as strong as me. Maister, I wish you would speak to Colin ; he's awfu* masterfu' ; instead of gaun to his bed, like a civilized lad, yonder he is awa' ben to the kitchen and down by the fire to read his book, till his hair's like a singed sheep's-head, and his cheeks like burning peats. Ane canna do a hand's-turn wi' a parcel o' callants about tho place day and nicht," said Jess, in an aggrieved tone.

"And just when Archie Candlish has suppered his horses and come in for half an hour's crack," said the master. " I'll send Colin to his bed ; but dinna have ower muckle to say to Archie, he's a rover," continued the good-tempered farmer, who " made allowances " for a little love-making. lie raised himself out of his arm-chair with a little hesitation, like a great mastiff uncoiling itself out of a position of comfort, and went slowly away as he spoke, moving off through the dimly-lighted room like an amiable giant as he was.

" Eh, keep me ! — and Archie Candlish had just that very minute lookit in at the door," said Jess, lifting her apron to her cheeks, which were glowing with blushes and laughter. "No that I wanted him ; but he came in wi' the news aboot the new minister, and noo I'll never hear an end o't, and the maister -will think he's aye there."

/;.] A Son of tlx Soil. 17

" If he's a decent lad and means weel, its nae great matter," said the mistress ; " but I dinna approve of ower niony lads. Ye may gang through the wood and through the wood and take but a crooked stick at the end."

" There's naebody I ken o' that the mistress can mean, but Bowed Jacob," said Jess reflectively, "and ane might do waur than take him though he's nae great figure of a man. The siller that body makes is a miracle, and it would be grand to live in a twa-storied house, and keep a lass ; but he's an awfu' Establishment man, and he micht interfere wi' my convictions," said the young woman with a glimmer of humour which found no response in the mistress's serious eyes ; for Mis, Campbell, being of a poetical and imaginative temperament, took most things much in earnest, and was slow to perceive a joke.

" You shouldna speak about convictions in that light way, Jess," said the farmer's wife. " I wouldna meddle wi' them mysel', no for a' the wealth o' the parish j but though the maister and me are strong Kirk folk, ye ken ye never were molested here."

"To hear Archie Candlish about the new minister!" cried Jess, whose quick ear had already ascertained that her master had paused in the kitchen to speak to her visitor, "ye would laugh ; but though it's grand fun for the folk, maybe it's no so pleasant for the poor man. "\Ye put down our names for the man we like best, us Free Kirk folk, but it's different in the parish. There's Tarn mas Scott, he vows he'll object to every presentee the Earl puts in. I'm no heeding for the Earl," said Jesse ; " he's a dour tory and can fecht for himscl' ; but eh I wouldna be that poor minister set up there for a f the parish to object to. I'd rather work at a weaver's loom or sell herrings about the country-side, if it was me ! "

" Weel, weel, tlrings that are hard for the flesh are guid for the spirit — or at least folk say so," cried the mistress of Ramore.

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" I dinna believe in that for my part," said the energetic Jess, as she lifted the wooden cradle in her strong arms. 41 Leave the wean still, mistress, and draw your shawl about ye. I could carry you too, for that matter. Eh me, I'm no o' that way o' thinking ; when ye're happy and weel likit, ye're aye good in proportion. No to gang against the words o' Scripture," said Jess, setting down the big cradle with a bump in her mistress's bedroom, and looking anxiously at the sleeping baby, which with a little start and gape, resisted this attempt to break its slumbers ; " but eh, mistress, it's aye my opinion that the happier folk arc the better they are. I never was as happy as in this house," continued the grateful handmaiden, furtively pursuing a tear into the corner of her eye, with a large forefinger, "no that I'm meaning to say I'm guid ; but yet — M

" You might be waur," said the mistress, with a smile. " You've aye a kind heart and a blytho look, and that gangs a far way wi' the maister and me. But it's time Archie Candlish was hanie to his mother. When there's nao moon and such heavy roads, you shouldna bring a decent man three mile out of his way at this hour o' the nicht to see you."

" Me I as if I was wanting him," said Jess, u and him no a word to say to me or ony lass, but about the beasts and the new minister. I'll be back in half a minute ; I wouldna waste my time upon a gomeril like you."

While Jess sallied forth through the chilly passages to which the weeping atmosphere had communicated a sensation of universal damp, the mistress knelt down to arrange her infant more commodiously in its homely nest. The red firelight made harmless glimmors all over her figure, catching now and then a sidelong glance out of her eyes as she smoothed the little pillow, and laid the tiny coverlet over the small unconscious creature wrapt closely in webs and bands of sleep. When she had done, she still knelt watching it as mothers will, with a smile upon her face. After a "while the beaming soft dark eyes turned to the light with a natural attraction, to the glimmers of the fire shooting accidental rays into all the corners, and to the steady little candle on the mantel-shelf. The mistress looked round on all the familiar objects of the homely low-roofed chamber. Outside, the rain fell heavily still upon the damp and sodden country, soaking silently in the dark into the forlorn wheat-sheaves, which had been standing in the fields to dry in ineffectual hopefulness for past weeks. Matters did not look promising on the farm of Eamore, and nothing had occurred to add any particular happiness to its mistress's lot. But happiness is perverse and follows no rule, and Jess's sentiment found an echo in Mrs. Campbell's mind. As she knelt by the cradle, her heart suddenly swelled with a consciousness of the perfection of life and joy in her and around her. It was in homely words enough that she gave it expression — " A' weel, and under ae roof/' she said to herself with exquisite dews of thankfulness in her eyes. " And the Lord have pity on lone folk and sorrowful," added the tender woman, with a compassion beyond words, a yearning that all might be glad like herself; the pity of happiness, which is of all pity, the most divine. Her boys were saying abrupt prayers, one by one, as they sank in succession into dreamless slumber. The master had gone out in the rain to take one last look over his kyne and his farmyard, and see that all was safe for the night, and Archie Candlish had just been dismissed with a stinging jest from the kitchen door, which Jess bolted and barred with cheerful din, singing softly to herself as she went about the house putting up the innocent shutters, which could not have resisted the first touch of a skilful hand. The rain was falling all over the wet silent country ; the Holy Loch gleamed like a kind of twilight spot in the darkness, and the house of Ramore stood shut up and hushed, no light at all to be seen but that from the open door, which the farmer

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20 A Son of the Soil. [chap.

suddenly extinguished as lie came in. But when that solitary light died out from the invisible hillside, and the darkness and the rain and the whispering night took undisturbed possession, was just the moment when the mother within, kneeling over her cradle in the firelight, was surprised by that sudden conscious touch of happiness. — " Happiness 1 oh, ay, weel enough ; we've a great deal to be thankfu' for," said big Colin, with a little sleepy surprise ; " if it werna for the sprouting corn and the broken weather ; but I dinna see onything particular to be happy about at this minute, and I'm gaun to my bed."

For the prose and the poetry did not exactly understand each other at all times, even in the primitive farm-house of Bauiore.

A Son of (he Soil.

Chapter III

The internal economy of a Scotch parish is not so clearly comprehensible now-a-days as it was in former times. Civilization itself has made countless inroads upon the original unities everywhere, and the changes that have come to pass within the recollection of the living generation are almost as great though very different from those which made Scotland during Last century so picturesque in its state of transition. "When Sunday morning dawned upon the Holy Loch, it did not shine upon that pretty rural picture of unanimous church-going so well-known to the history of the past. The groups from the cottages took different ways — the carriage from the Castle swept round the hill to the other side of the parish, where there was an " English Chapel." The reign of opinion and liking was established in the once primitive community. Half of the people ascended the hillside to the Free Church, while the others wound down the side of the loch to the Kirk, which had once accommodated the whole parish. This state of affairs had become so usual that even polemical feeling had ceased to a great extent, and the two streams of church-going people crossed each other placidly without recriminations. This da}-, for a wonder, the sun was shining brightly, notwithstanding a cloudy stormy sky, which now and then heaved forward a rolling mass of vapour, and dispersed it sharply over the hills in a flying mist and shower.

The parish church lay at the lower end of the loch, a pretty little church built since the days when architecture had penetrated even into Scotland. Colin of Eamore and his family were

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there in their pew, the hoys arranged in order of seniority between Mrs. Campbell, who sat at the head, and the farmer himself who kept the seat at the door. Black-eyed Johnnie, with his hair bleached white by constant exposure, and his round eyes wandering over the walls and the pews and the pulpit and the people, sat by his mother's side, and the younger Colin occupied his post of seniority by his father. They were all seated, in this disposition, when the present occupant of the Castle, Sir Thomas Frankland, lounged up the little aisle, with his son after him. Sir Thomas was quite devout and respectable, a man who knew how to conduct himself even in such a novel scene — and after all a Presbyterian church was no novelty to the sportsman— but to Harry the aspect of everything was new, and his curiosity was excited. It was a critical moment in the history of the parish. The former minister had been transferred only a few weeks before to a more important station, and the Earl, the patron, had, according to Scotch phraseology, "presented " a new incumbent to the living. This unhappy man was ascending the pulpit when the Franklands, father and son, entered the church. For the Earl's presentation by no means implied the peaceable entrance of the new minister; he had to preach, to give the people an opportunity of deciding whether they liked him or not; and if they did not like him, they had the power of " objecting," that is, of urging special reasons for their dislike before the Presbytery, with a certainty of making a little noise in the district, and a reasonable probability of disgusting and mortifying the unlucky presentee, to the point of throwing up his appointment. All this was well known to the unfortunate man, who rose up in the pulpit as Sir Thomas found a scat, and proceeded to read the psalm with a somewhat embarrassed and faltering voice. He was moderately young and well-looking, with a face, at the present moment, more agitated than was quite harmonious with the position in which

///.] A Son of tlvt Soil. 23

he stood : for he was quite aware tlxat everybody was criticizing him, and that the inflections of his voice and the fiery tint of his hair were being noted by eager commentators bent upon linding ground for an " objection " in everything he said. Such a consciousness naturally does not promote ease or comfort. His hair looked redder than ever, as a stray ray of sunshine gleamed in upon him, and his voice took a nervous break as he looked over the many hard unsympathetic faces which were regarding him with the sharp curiosity and inspection of excited wits.

But while Harry Frankland made, as he thought, " an ass of himself" on every occasion that offered — standing bolt upright when the congregation began to sing, which they did at their leisure, seated in the usual way — and kicking his heels in an attempt to kneel when everybody round him rose up for the prayer, and feeling terribly red and ashamed at each mistake, Colin the younger, of liamore, occupied himself, like a heartless young critic as he was, in making observations on the minister. Colin, like his father, had a high opinion of " popular lights." It was his idea, somehow drawn in with the damp Highland air he breathed, that " the right of objecting to a presentee was one of the most important privileges of a Scotch Churchman. Then, he was to be a minister himself, and the consciousness of tins fact intensified the natural opposition which prompted the boy's mind to resist anything and everything that threatened to be imposed on him. Colin even listened to the prayer, which was a thing not usual with him, that he might find out the objectionable phrases. And to be sure there were plenty of objectionable phrases to mar the real devotion ; the vainest of vain repetitions, well-known and familiar as household words to every Scotch ear, demonstrated liow little effect the absence of a liturgy has in promoting fervent and individual supplications. The congregation in

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general listened, liko young Colin, standing up in easy attitudes, and observing everything that passed around them with openeyed composure. It did not look much like common supplication, nor did it pretend to be — for the people were but listening to the minister's prayer, which, to tell the truth, contained various expository and remonstrative paragraphs, which were clearly addressed to the congregation ; and they were all veryglad to sit down when it was over, and clear their throats, and prepare for the sermon, which was the real business of the day.

" I dinna like a' that new-fangled nonsense to begin with," said Eben Campbell, of Earaton, as he walked homo after church, with the party from Eamore ; " naebody wants twa chapters read at one diet of worship. The Bible's grand at hanie, but that's no what a man gangs to the kirk for; that, and so mony prayers — it's naething but a great offput of time."

" But we never can have ower muckle o' the word of God," said Colin of Ramore's wife.

" I'm of Eben's opinion," said another neighbour. " We have the word o' God at hame, and I hope we make a good use o' it ; but that's no what we gang to the kirk to hear. When ye see a man that's set up in the pulpit for anither purpose a'thegether, spending half his time in reading chapters and ither preliminaries, I aye consider it's a sure sign that he hasna muckle o' his ain to say."

They were all walking abreast in a leisurely Sunday fashion up the loch ; the children roaming about the skirts of the older party, some in front and some behind, occasionally making furtive investigations into the condition of the brambles, an anti-Sabbatical occupation which was sharply interrupted when found out — the women picking their steps along the edges of the muddy road, with now and then a word of pleasant gossip, while the men trudged on sturdily through the puddles, discussing the great subject of the day.

"Some of the new folk from the Castle were in the kirk to-day," said one of the party, — "which is a respect to the parish the Earl doesna pay himself. Things are terrible changed in that way since my young days. The auld Earl, this ane's father, was an elder in the Kirk ; and gentle and simple, we a' said our prayers thegether — "

" I dinna approve of that expression," said Eben of IJarnton. " To speak of saying your prayers in the kirk is pure papistry. Say your prayers at hame, as I hope we a' do, at the family altar, no to speak of private devotions," said this defender of the faith, with a glance at the unlucky individual who had just spoken, and who was understood not to he so regular in the article of family prayer as he ought to have been. " We gang to the kirk to have our minds stirred up and put in remembrance. I dinna approve of the English fashion of putting everything into the prayers."