Scottish sketches Part 16

"I have never tried to save anything yet, uncle, but I am going to begin."

The old man sat silent for a few moments, and then said, "I wont do it, Davie."

"It is only 2,000, Uncle John."

"_Only_ 2,000! Hear the lad! Did ye ever mak 2,000? Did ye ever save 2,000? When ye hae done that ye'll ne'er put in the adverb, Davie.

_Only 2,000, indeed!_"

"I thought you loved me, uncle."

"I love no human creature better than you. Whatna for should I not love you? You are the only thing left to me o' the bonnie brave brother who wrapped his colors round him in the Afghan Pa.s.s, the brave-hearted lad who died fighting twenty to one. And you are whiles sae like him that I'm tempted--na, na, that is a' byganes. I will not let you hae the 2,000, that is the business in hand."

"What for?"

"If you will hear the truth, that second gla.s.s o' whiskey is reason plenty. I hae taken my ane gla.s.s every night for forty years, and I hae ne'er made the ane twa, except New Year's tide."

"That is fair nonsense, Uncle John. There are plenty of men whom you trust for more than 2,000 who can take four gla.s.ses for their nightcap always."

"That may be; I'm no denying it; but what is lawfu' in some men is sinfu' in others."

"I do not see that at all."

"Do you mind last summer, when we were up in Argyles.h.i.+re, how your cousin, Roy Callendar, walked, with ne'er the wink o' an eyelash, on a mantel-shelf hanging over a three-hundred-feet precipice? Roy had the trained eyesight and the steady nerve which made it lawfu' for him; for you or me it had been suicide--naething less sinfu'. Three or four gla.s.ses o' whiskey are safer for some men than twa for you. I hae been feeling it my duty to tell you this for some time. Never look sae glum, Davie, or I'll be thinking it is my siller and no mysel' you were caring for the night when ye thought o' my cloak and umbrella."

The young man rose in a perfect blaze of pa.s.sion.

"Sit down, sit down," said his uncle. "One would think you were your grandfather, Evan Callendar, and that some English red-coat had trod on your tartan. Hout! What's the use o' a temper like that to folk wha hae taken to the spindle instead o' the claymore?"

"I am a Callendar for all that."

"Sae am I, sae am I, and vera proud o' it fore-bye. We are a' kin, Davie; blood is thicker than water, and we wont quarrel."

David put down his unfinished gla.s.s of toddy. He could not trust himself to discuss the matter any farther, but as he left the room he paused, with the open door in his hand, and said,

"If you are afraid I am going to be a drunkard, why did you not care for the fear before it became a question of 2,000? And if I ever do become one, remember this, Uncle John--you mixed my first gla.s.s for me!"

CHAPTER II.

A positive blow could hardly have stunned John Callendar as this accusation did. He could not have answered it, even if he had had an opportunity, and the shock was the greater that it brought with it a sudden sense of responsibility, yea, even guilt. At first the feeling was one of anger at this sudden charge of conscience. He began to excuse himself; he was not to blame if other people could not do but they must o'erdo; then to a.s.sure himself that, being G.o.d's child, there could be no condemnation in the matter to him. But his heart was too tender and honest to find rest in such apologies, and close upon his anger at the lad crowded a host of loving memories that would not be put away.

David's father had been very dear to him. He recalled his younger brother in a score of tender situations: the schoolhouse in which they had studied cheek to cheek over one book; the little stream in which they had paddled and fished on holidays, the fir-wood, the misty corries, and the heathery mountains of Argyle; above all, he remembered the last time that he had ever seen the bright young face marching at the head of his company down Buchanan street on his way to India. David's mother was a still tenderer memory, and John Callendar's eyes grew misty as his heart forced him to recall that dark, wintry afternoon when she had brought David to him, and he had solemnly promised to be a father to the lad. It was the last promise between them; three weeks afterwards he stood at her grave's side.

Time is said to dim such memories as these. It never does. After many years some sudden event recalls the great crises of any life with all the vividness of their first occurrence.

Confused as these memories were, they blended with an equal confusion of feelings. Love, anger, regret, fear, perplexity, condemnation, excuse, followed close on each other, and John's mind, though remarkably clear and acute, was one trained rather to the consideration of things point by point than to the catching of the proper clew in a mental labyrinth. After an hour's miserable uncertainty he was still in doubt what to do. The one point of comfort he had been able to reach was the hope that David had gone straight to Jenny with his grievance. "And though women-folk arena much as counsellors," thought John, "they are wonderfu' comforters; and Jenny will ne'er hear tell o' his leaving the house; sae there will be time to put right what is wrong."

But though David had always. .h.i.therto, when lessons were hard or la.s.sies scornful, gone with his troubles to the faithful Jenny, he did not do so at this time. He did not even bid her "Good-night," and there was such a look on his face that she considered it prudent not to challenge the omission.

"It will be either money or marriage," she thought. "If it be money, the deacon has mair than is good for him to hae; if it be marriage, it will be Isabel Strang, and that the deacon wont like. But it is his ain wife Davie is choosing, and I am for letting the lad hae the la.s.s he likes best."

Jenny had come to these conclusions in ten minutes, but she waited patiently for an hour before she interrupted her master. Then the clock struck midnight, and she felt herself aggrieved. "Deacon," she said sharply, "ye should mak the day day and the night night, and ye would if ye had a three weeks' ironing to do the morn. It has chappit twelve, sir."

"Jenny, I'm not sleeplike to-night. There hae been ill words between David and me."

"And I am mair than astonished at ye, deacon. Ye are auld enough to ken that ill words canna be wiped out wi' a sponge. Our Davie isna an ordinar lad; he can be trusted where the lave would need a watcher. Ye ken that, deacon, for he is your ain bringing up."

"But, Jenny, 2,000 for his share o' Hastie's mill! Surely ye didna encourage the lad in such an idea?"

"Oh, sae it's money," thought Jenny. "What is 2,000 to you, deacon?

Why should you be sparing and saving money to die wi'? The lad isna a fool."

"I dinna approve o' the partner that is seeking him, Jenny. I hae heard things anent Robert Leslie that I dinna approve of; far from it."

"Hae ye _seen_ anything wrong?"

"I canna say I hae."

"Trust to your eyes, deacon; they believe themselves, and your ears believe other people; ye ken which is best. His father was a decent body."

"Ay, ay; but Alexander Leslie was different from his son Robert. He was a canny, cautious man, who could ding for his ain side, and who always stood by the kirk. Robert left Dr. Morrison's soon after his father died. The doctor was too narrow for Robert Leslie. Robert Leslie has wonderfu' broad ideas about religion now. Jenny, I dinna like the men who are their ain Bibles and ministers."

"But there are good folk outside Dr. Morrison's kirk, deacon, surely."

"We'll trust so, surely, we'll trust so, Jenny; but a man wi' broad notions about religion soon gets broad notions about business and all other things. Why, Jenny, I hae heard that Robert Leslie once spoke o'

the house o' John Callendar & Co. as 'old fogyis.h.!.+'"

"That's no hanging matter, deacon, and ye must see that the world is moving."

"Maybe, maybe; but I'se never help it to move except in the safe, narrow road. Ye ken the Garloch mill-stream? It is narrow enough for a good rider to leap, but it is deep, and it does its wark weel summer and winter. They can break down the banks, woman, and let it spread all over the meadow; bonnie enough it will look, but the mill-clapper would soon stop. Now there's just sae much power, spiritual or temporal, in any man; spread it out, and it is shallow and no to be depended on for any purpose whatever. But narrow the channel, Jenny, narrow the channel, and it is a driving force."

"Ye are getting awa from the main subject, deacon. It is the 2,000, and ye had best mak up your mind to gie it to Davie. Then ye can gang awa to your bed and tak your rest."

"You talk like a--like a woman. It is easy to gie other folks' siller awa. I hae worked for my siller."

"Your siller, deacon? Ye hae naught but a life use o' it. Ye canna take it awa wi' ye. Ye can leave it to the ane you like best, but that vera person may scatter it to the four corners o' the earth. And why not? Money was made round that it might roll. It is little good yours is doing lying in the Clyde Trust."

"Jenny Callendar, you are my ain cousin four times removed, and you hae a kind o' right to speak your mind in my house; but you hae said enough, woman. It isna a question of money only; there are ither things troubling me mair than that. But women are but one-sided arguers. Good-night to you."

He turned to the fire and sat down, but after a few moments of the same restless, confused deliberation, he rose and went to his Bible.

It lay open upon its stand, and John put his hand lovingly, reverently upon the pages. He had no gla.s.ses on, and he could not see a letter, but he did not need to.

"It is my Father's word," he whispered; and, standing humbly before it, he recalled pa.s.sage after pa.s.sage, until a great calm fell upon him. Then he said,

"I will lay me down and sleep now; maybe I'll see clearer in the morning light."

Almost as soon as he opened his eyes in the morning there was a tap at his door, and the gay, strong voice he loved so dearly asked,