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CHAPTER IX
Out of this quiescence, however, a pang from the past one morning suddenly
waked him, and almost without consciousness of a volition, he found himself
at the soutar's door. Maggie opened it with the baby in her arms, with whom
she had just been having a game. Her face was in a glow, her hair tossed
about, and her dark eyes flashing with excitement. To Blatherwick, without
any great natural interest in life, and in the net of a haunting trouble
which caused him no immediate apprehension, the young girl, of so little
account in the world, and so far below him as he thought, affected him as
beautiful; and, indeed, she was far more beautiful than he was able to
appreciate. It must be remembered too, that it was not long since he had
been refused by another; and at such a time a man is readier to fall in
love afresh. Trouble then, lack of interest, and late repulse, had laid
James's heart, such as it was, open to assault from a new quarter whence he
foresaw no danger.
"That's a very fine baby you have!" he said. "Whose is he?"
"Mine, sir," answered Maggie, with some triumph, for she thought every one
must know the story of her treasure.
"Oh, indeed; I did not know!" answered the parson, bewildered.
"At least," Maggie resumed a little hurriedly, "I have the best right to
him!" and there stopped.
"She cannot possibly be his mother!" thought the minister, and resolved to
question his housekeeper about the child.
"Is your father in the house?" he asked, and without waiting for an answer,
went in. "Such a big boy is too heavy for you to carry!" he added, as he
laid his hand on the latch of the kitchen door.
"No ae bit!" rejoined Maggie, with a little contempt at his disparagement
of her strength. "And wha's to cairry him but me?"
Huddling the boy to her bosom, she went on talking to him in childish
guise, as she lifted the latch for the minister:--
"Wad he hae my pet gang traivellin the warl' upo thae twa bonny wee legs o'
his ain, wantin the wings he left ahint him? Na, na! they maun grow a heap
stronger first. His ain mammie wad cairry him gien he war twice the size!
Noo, we s' gang but the hoose and see daddy."
She bore him after the minister, and sat down with him on her own stool,
beside her father, who looked up, with his hands and knees in skilful
consort of labour.
"Weel, minister, hoo are ye the day? Is the yerd ony lichter upo' the tap
o' ye?" he said, with a smile that was almost pauky.
"I do not understand you, Mr. MacLear!" answered James with dignity.
"Na, ye canna! Gien ye could, ye wouldna be sae comfortable as ye seem!"
"I cannot think, Mr. MacLear, why you should be rude to me!"
"Gien ye saw the hoose on fire aboot a man deid asleep, maybe ye micht be
in ower great a hurry to be polite til 'im!" remarked the soutar.
"Dare you suggest, sir, that I have been drinking?" cried the parson.
"Not for a single moment, sir; and I beg yer pardon for causin ye so to
mistak me: I do not believe, sir, ye war ever ance owertaen wi' drink in a'
yer life! I fear I'm jist ower ready to speyk in parables, for it's no
a'body that can or wull un'erstan' them! But the last time ye left me upo'
this same stule, it was wi' that cry o' the Apostle o' the Gentiles i' my
lug--'Wauk up, thoo that sleepest!' For even the deid wauk whan the trumpet
blatters i' their lug!"
"It seems to me that there the Apostle makes allusion to the condition of
the Gentile nations, asleep in their sins! But it may apply, doubtless, to
the conversion of any unbelieving man from the error of his ways."
"Weel," said the soutar, turning half round, and looking the minister full
in the face, "are ye convertit, sir? Or are ye but turnin frae side to
side i' yer coffin--seekin a sleepin assurance that ye're waukin?"
"You are plain-spoken anyway!" said the minister, rising.
"Maybe I am at last, sir! And maybe I hae been ower lang in comin to that
same plainness! Maybe I was ower feart for yer coontin me ill-fashiont--
what ye ca' rude!"
The parson was half-way to the door, for he was angry, which was not
surprising. But with the latch in his hand he turned, and, lo, there in the
middle of the floor, with the child in her arms, stood the beautiful
Maggie, as if in act to follow him: both were staring after him.
"Dinna anger him, father," said Maggie; "he disna ken better!"
"Weel ken I, my dautie, that he disna ken better; but I canna help thinkin
he's maybe no that far frae the waukin. God grant I be richt aboot that!
Eh, gien he wud but wauk up, what a man he would mak! He kens a heap--only
what's that whaur a man has no licht?"
"I certainly do not see things as you would have me believe you see them;
and you are hardly capable of persuading me that you do, I fear!" said
Blatherwick, with the angry flush again on his face, which had for a moment
been dispelled by pallor.
But here the baby seeming to recognize the unsympathetic tone of the
conversation, pulled down his lovely little mouth, and sent from it a dread
and potent cry. Clasping him to her bosom, Maggie ran from the room with
him, jostling James in the doorway as he let her pass.
"I am afraid I frightened the little man!" he said.
"'Deed, sir, it may ha' been you, or it may ha' been me 'at frichtit him,"
rejoined the soutar. "It's a thing I'm sair to blame in--that, whan I'm in
richt earnest, I'm aye ready to speyk as gien I was angert. Sir, I humbly
beg yer pardon."
"As humbly I beg yours," returned the parson; "I was in the wrong."
The heart of the old man was drawn afresh to the youth. He laid aside his
shoe, and turning on his stool, took James's hand in both of his, and said
solemnly and lovingly--
"This moment I wad wullin'ly die, sir, that the licht o' that uprisin o'
which we spak micht brak throuw upon ye!"
"I believe you, sir," answered James; "but," he went on, with an attempt at
humour, "it wouldn't be so much for you to do after all, seeing you would
straightway find yourself in a much better place!"
"Maybe whaur the penitent thief sat, some auchteen hunner year ago, waitin
to be called up higher!" rejoined the soutar with a watery smile.
The parson opened the door, and went home--where his knees at once found
their way to the carpet.
From that night Blatherwick began to go often to the soutar's, and soon
went almost every other day, for at least a few minutes; and on such
occasions had generally a short interview with Maggie and the baby, in
both of whom, having heard from the soutar the story of the child, he took
a growing interest.
"You seem to love him as if he were your own, Maggie!" he said one morning
to the girl.
"And isna he my ain? Didna God himsel gie me the bairn intil my vera airms
--or a' but?" she rejoined.
"Suppose he were to die!" suggested the minister. "Such children often do!"
"I needna think aboot that," she answered. "I would just hae to say, as
mony ane has had to say afore me: 'The Lord gave,'--ye ken the rest, sir!"
But day by day Maggie grew more beautiful in the minister's eyes, until at
last he was not only ready to say that he loved her, but for her sake to
disregard worldly and ambitious considerations.
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