The Life of Mansie Wauch Part 8

CHAPTER FIFTEEN--MANSIE ON THE RETURN FROM MY LORD'S RACES

I may confess, without thinking shame, that I was glad when I found our nebs turned homeward; and, when we got over the turn of the brae at the old quarry-holes, to see the blue smoke of our own Dalkeith, hanging like a thin cloud over the tops of the green trees, through which I perceived the glittering weatherc.o.c.k on the old kirk steeple. Tammie, poor creature, I observed, was a whit ree with the good cheer; and, as he sat on the fore-tram, with his whip-hand thrown over the beast's haunches, he sang, half to himself and half-aloud, a great many old Scotch songs, such as "the Gaberlunzie," "Aiken Drum," "Tak' yere Auld Cloak about ye," and "the Deuks dang ower my Daddie"; besides "The Mucking o' Geordie's Byre,"

and "Ca' the Ewes to the Knowes," and so on; but, do what I liked, I could not keep my spirits up, thinking of the woful end of the poor old horse, and of the ne'er-do-weel loon its master. Many an excellent instruction of Mr Wiggie's came to my mind, of how we misguided the good things that were lent us for our use here, by a gracious Provider, who would, however, bid us render a final account to him of our conduct and conversation. I thought of how many were aye complaining and complaining, myself whiles among the rest, of the hards.h.i.+ps, the miseries, and the misfortunes of their lot; putting all down to the score of fate, and never once thinking of the plantations of sorrow, reared up from the seeds of our own sinfulness; or how any thing, save punishment, could come of the breaking of the ten commandments delivered to the patriarch Moses. Perhaps, reckoned I with myself, perhaps in this, even I myself may have in this day's transactions erred. Here am I wandering about in a cart; exposing myself to the defilement of the world, to the fear of robbers, and to the night air, in the search of health for a dwining laddie; as if the hand that dealt that blessing out was not as powerful at home as it is abroad. Had I remained at my own lap-broad, the profits of my day's work would have been over and above for the maintenance of my family, outside and inside; instead of which, I have been at the expense of a cart-hire and a horse's up-putting, let alone Tammie's debosh and my own, besides the trifle of threepence to the round-shouldered old horse-couper with the slouched j.a.pan beaver hat.

The story was too true a one; but, alack-a-day, it was now over late to repent!

As I was thus musing, the bright red sun of summer sank down behind the top of the Pentland Hills, and all looked bluish, dowie, and dreary, as if the heart of the world had been seized with a sudden dwalm, and the face of nature had at once withered from blooming youth into the h.o.a.riness of old age. Now and then the birds gave a bit chitter; and whiles a cow mooed from the fields; and the dew was falling like the little tears of the fairies out of the blue lift, where the gloaming-star soon began to glow and glitter bonnily.

What I had seen and witnessed made my thoughts heavy and my heart sad; I could not get the better of it. I looked round and round me, as we jogged along over the height, down on the far distant country, that spread out as if it had been a great big picture, with hills, and fields, and woods; and I could still see to the norward the s.h.i.+ps lying at their anchors on the sea, and the sh.o.r.es of Fife far far beyond it. It was a great and a grand sight; and made me turn from the looking at it into my own heart, causing me to think more and more of the glory of the Maker's handiworks, and less and less of the littleness of prideful man. But Tammie had gotten his drappikie, and the tongue of the body would not lie still a moment; so he blethered on from one thing to another, as we jogged along, till I was forced at the last to give up thinking, and begin a twa-handed crack with him.

"Have you your snuff-box upon ye?" said Tammie. "Gi'e me a pinch."

Having given him the box, I observed to him, that "it was beginning to grow dark and dowie."

"'Deed is't," said Tammie; "but a body can now scarcely meet on the road wi' ony think waur than themsell. Mony a witch, de'il, and bogle, however, did my grannie see and hear tell of, that used to scud and scamper hereaway langsyne like maukins."

"Witches!" quo' I. "No, no, Tammie, all these things are out of the land now; and muckle luck to them. But we have other things to fear; what think ye of highway robbers?"

"Highway robbers!" said Tammie. "Kay, kay; I'll tell ye of something that I met in wi' mysell. Ae dark winter night, as I was daundering hame frae Pathhead--it was pitmirk, and about the twall--losh me, I couldna see my finger afore me!--that a stupid thocht cam into my head that I wad never wun hame, but be either killed, lost, murdered, or drowned, between that and the dawing. All o' a sudden I sees a light coming dancing forrit amang the trees; and my hair began to stand up on end. Then, in the next moment--save us a'!--I sees anither light, and forrit, forrit they baith cam, like the een of some great fiery monster, let loose frae the pit o' darkness by its maister, to seek whom it might devour."

"Stop, Tammie," said I to him, "ye'll wauken Benjie. How far are we from Dalkeith?"

[Picture: Thomas Burlings]

"Twa mile and a bittock," answered Tammie. "But wait a wee.--Up cam the two lights snoov-snooving, nearer and nearer; and I heard distinctly the sound of feet that werena men's--cloven feet, maybe--but nae wheels. Sae nearer it cam and nearer, till the sweat began to pour owre my een as cauld as ice; and, at lang and last, I fand my knees beginning to gi'e way; and, after tot-tottering for half a minute, I fell down, my staff playing bleach out before me. When I cam to mysell, and opened my een, there were the twa lights before me, bleez-bleezing, as if they wad blast my sight out. And what did they turn out to be, think ye? The de'il or s.p.u.n.kie, whilk o' them?"

"I'm sure I canna tell," said I.

"Naithing mair then," answered Tammie, "but twa bowets; ane tied to ilka knee of auld Doofie, the half-crazy horse-doctor, mounted on his lang-tailed naig, and away through the dark by himsell, at the dead hour o' night, to the relief of a man's mare seized with the batts, somewhere down about Oxenford."

I was glad that Tammie's story had ended in this way, when out came another tramping on its heels.

"Do you see the top of yon black trees to the eastward there, on the braehead?"

"I think I do," was my reply. "But how far, think ye, are we from home now?"

"About a mile and a half," said Tammie.--"Weel, as to the trees, I'll tell ye something about them.

"There was an auld widow-leddy lived langsyne about the town-end of Dalkeith. A sour, cankered, curious body--she's dead and rotten lang ago. But what I was gaun to say, she had a bonny bit fair-haired, blue-ee'd la.s.sie of a servant-maid that lodged in the house wi' her, just by all the world like a lamb wi' an wolf; a bonnier quean, I've heard tell, never steppit in leather shoon; so all the young lads in the gate-end were wooing at her, and fain to have her; but she wad only have ae joe for a' that. He was a journeyman wright, a trades-lad, and they had come, three or four year before, frae the same place thegither--maybe having had a liking for ane anither since they were bairns; so they were gaun to be married the week after Da'keith Fair, and a' was settled. But what, think ye, happened? He got a drap drink, and a recruiting party listed him in the king's name, wi' pitting a white s.h.i.+lling in his loof.

"When the poor la.s.sie heard what had come to pa.s.s, and how her sweetheart had ta'en the bounty, she was like to gang distrackit, and took to her bed. The doctor never took up her trouble; and some said it was a fever.

At last she was roused out o't, but naebody ever saw her laugh after; and frae ane that was as cantie as a lintie, she became as douce as a Quaker, though she aye gaed cannily about her wark, as if amaist naething had happened. If she was ony way light-headed before, to be sure she wasna that noo; but just what a decent quean should be, sitting for hours by the kitchen fire her lane, reading the Bible, and thinking, wha kens, of what wad become o' the wicked after they died; and so ye see--"

"What light is yon?" said I, interrupting him, wis.h.i.+ng him like to break off.

"Ou, it's just the light on some of the coal-hills. The puir blackened creatures will be gaun down to their wark. It's an unyearthly kind of trade, turning night intil day, and working like moudiewarts in the dark, when decent folks are in their beds sleeping.--And so, as I was saying, ye see, it happened ae Sunday night that a chap cam to the back door; and the mistress too heard it. She was sitting in the foreroom wi' her specs on, reading some sermon book; but it was the maid that answered.

"In a while thereafter, she rang her bell, being a curious body, and aye anxious to ken a' thing of her ain affairs, let alane her neighbours; so, after waiting a wee, she rang again,--and better rang; then lifting up her stick, for she was stiff with the rheumaticks and decay of nature, she hirpled into the kitchen,--but feint a hait saw she there, save the open Bible lying on the table, the cat streekit out before the fire, and the candle burning--the candle--na, I daur say I am wrang there, I believe it was a lamp, for she was a near ane. As for her maiden, there was no trace of her."

"What do ye think came owre her then?" said I to him, liking to be at my wits' end. "Naething uncanny, I daur say?"

"Ye'll hear in a moment," answered Tammie, "a' that I ken o' the matter.

Ye see--as I asked ye before--yon trees on the hill-head to the eastward; just below yon black cloud yonder?"

"Preceesely," said I--"I see them well enough."

"Weel, after a' thochts of finding her were gi'en up, and it was fairly concluded, that it was the auld gudeman that had come and chappit her out, she was fund in a pond among yon trees, floating on her back, wi'

her Sunday's claes on!!"

"Drowned?" said I to him.

"Drowned--and as stiff as a deal board," answered Tammie. "But when she was drowned--or how she came to be drowned--or who it was drowned her--has never been found out to this blessed moment."

"Maybe," said I, lending in my word--"maybe she had grown demented, and thrown herself in i' the dark."

"Or maybe," said Tammie, "the deil flew away wi' her in a flash o' fire; and, soosing her down frae the lift, she landit in that hole, where she was fund floating. But--wo!--wo!" cried he to his horse, coming across its side with his whip--"We maun be canny; for this brig has a sharp turn (it was the Cow Brig, ye know), and many a one, both horse and man, have got their necks broken, by not being wary enough of that corner."

This made me a thought timorous, having the bit laddie Benjie fast asleep in my arms; and as I saw that Tammie's horse was a wee fidgety, and glad, I dare say, poor thing, to find itself so near home. We heard the water, far down below, roaring and hus.h.i.+ng over the rocks, and thro' among the Duke's woods--big, thick, black trees, that threw their branches, like giant's arms, half across the Esk, making all below as gloomy as midnight; while over the tops of them, high, high aboon, the bonnie wee starries were twink-twinkling far amid the blue. But there was no end to Tammie's tongue.

"Weel," said he, "speaking o' the brig, I'll tell you a gude story about that. Auld Jamie Bowie, the potato merchant, that lived at the Gate-end, had a horse and cart that met wi' an accident just at the turn o' the corner yonder; and up cam a chield sair forfaughten, and a' out of breath, to Jamie's door, crying like the prophet Jeremiah to the auld Jews, 'Rin, rin away doun to the Cow Brig; for your cart's dung to s.h.i.+vers, and the driver's killed, as weel as the horse!'

"James ran in for his hat; but as he was coming out at the door, he met another messenger, such as came running across the plain to David, to acquaint him of the death of Absalom, crying, 'Rin away doun, Jamie, rin away doun; your cart is standing yonder, without either horse or driver; for they're baith killed!'

"Jamie thanked Heaven that the cart was to the fore; then, rinning back for his stick, which he had forgotten, he stopped a moment to bid his wife not greet so loud, and was then rus.h.i.+ng out in full birr, when he ran foul of a third chield, that mostly knocked doun the door in his hurry. 'Awfu' news, man, awfu' news,' was the way o't, with this second Eliphaz the Temanite. 'Your cart and horse ran away--and threw the driver, puir fellow, clean owre the brig into the water. No a crunch o'

him is to be seen or heard tell of; for he was a' smashed to pieces!!

It's an awfu' business!'

"'But where's the horse? and where's the cart, then?' askit Jamie, a thought brisker. 'Where's the horse and cart, then, my man? Can ye tell me ought of that?'

"'Ou,' said he, 'they're baith doun at the Toll yonder, no a hair the waur.'

"'That's the best news I've heard the nicht, my man.--Goodwife, I say, Goodwife; are ye deaf or donnart? Give this lad a dram; and, as it rather looks like a shower, I'll e'en no go out the night.--I'll easy manage to find another driver, though half a hundred o' the blockheads should get their brains knocked out.'

"Is not that a gude ane noo?" quo' Tammie, laughing. '"Od Jamie Bowie was a real ane. He wadna let them light a candle by his bedside to let him see to dee; he gied them a curse, and said that was needless extravagance."

Dog on it, thought I to myself, the further in the deeper. This beats the round-shouldered, horse-couper with the j.a.pan hat, skinning his reeking horse, all to sticks; and so I again fell into a gloomy sort of a musing; when, just as we came opposite the Duke's gate, with the deers on each side of it, two men rushed out upon us, and one of them seized Tammie's horse by the bridle, as the other one held his horse-pistol to my nose, and bade me stop in the King's name!

"Hold your hand, hold your hand, for the sake of mercy!" cried I. "Spare the father of a small family that will starve on the street if ye take my life!! Hae--hae--there's every coin and copper I have about me in the world! Be merciful, be merciful; and do not shed blood, that will not, cannot be rubbed out of your conscience. Take all that we have--horse and cart and all if ye like; only spare our lives, and let us away home!"

"De'il's in the man," quo' Tammie, "horse and cart! that's a gude one!

Na, na, lads; fire away gin ye like; for as lang as I hae a drap o' bluid in me, ye'll get neither. Better be killed than starve. Do your best, ye thieves that ye are; and I'll hae baith of ye hanged neist week before the Fifteen!"

Every moment I expected my head to be shot off, till I got my hand clapped on Tammie's mouth, and could get cried to them--"Shoot him then, lads; shoot him then, lads, if he wants it; but take my siller like Christians, and let me away with my poor deeing bairn!"

The two men seemed a something dumfoundered with what they heard; and I began to think them, if they were highway robbers, a wee slow at their trade; when, what think ye did they turn out to be--only guess? Nothing more nor less than two excise officers, that had got information of some smuggled gin, coming up in a cart from Fisherrow Harbour, and were lurking on the road-side, looking out for spuilzie!!