66 66 Better a finger aff than aye waggin'," and Better sune as syne." If you let the lad awa' now, they'll hae time to learn him a trade in Australia. If ye put it aff and come speirin' at me to get rid o' him in a year or twa, it'll be ower late then.' "Yon was the finish o't, and Chirstie said nae mair. She sorted his bits o' things and redd him up the best way she could, and he went clean and respectable-I'll say that for her; and she was well rid o' the young limb." "Ay, Mr Begg," ejaculated the sympathetic Miss Jameson, but Chirstie missed the lad. I mind of Postie telling me at the New Year time the way she'd be waitin' on his passing, looking for a letter frae Australia, though she'd never let on that this was in her mind." and at the foot he says: 'I've sabbit a wee syne I left Peden Knowe, and I've dune nae sae badly for mysel'. I'll maybe can pay ye yet in braw siller for your skelpings.' I didna just like the sound o' yon, but Chirstie seemed content-like." "She would be that," again interjected Mrs Downie with some contempt. "The kind that's aye lookin' for impudence 'll maybe not see it when it's staring them in the face." "And to think that she never had word again till his name was in the papers!" cried Miss Jameson. "It was William saw it first, for I mind of his coming off the seven train wi' the Herald' in his haund. 'And is this no' our Sandy?' says he; and he shows me a heap o' print wi' 'Mr Alexander Sinclair' at the top. 'Romantic rise of a young Scotch emigrant,' it says, and a'!" "She lookit lang, then, afore she got word frae Sandy," said Mercy on us! Preserve us Mr Begg, who was gazing at his watch and the station clock alternately as though he believed neither, for I was at the post-office when it came; and my but Chirstie was a proud wumman thon day! She gee'd me a glime o' the letter, and I can see it yetgreat big letters, but no' that ill-written either." "Mr Downie saw to that," interjected his widow proudly. "He was speirin' aifter this yin and thon yin, but never a word did he let on aboot hissel', and what he was aifter in Australia. There was anither letter cam twa year later, and I mind o' seeing that yin too, This ejaculation from Euphemia signified that the hero of romance was upon them in the flesh. A shriek from the approaching engine announced his imminence, and gave Mr Soutar barely time to give a last injunction to the members of his Committee. "Now see and let bygones be bygones. There's no use in putting Mr Sinclair in mind of what's best forgot." It was doubtful if many of the group heard this admonition, for their eyes were fixed upon the onrushing train, and its roar was in their ears. head had appeared at a window, A and a grey soft hat was waved in their direction. So moved was Mrs Downie from her wonted composure that she gripped Mrs Moffatwith whom she had not been on speaking terms for fully a year-by the arm, and lapsed into the vernacular, "Yon's him!" she cried. "I ken him by his red heid, and he's travellin' first. Eh, lovens, see the braw claes he's on!" A tall spare figure in a light grey suit sprang from the carriage door before the train came to a standstill, and alighted almost on Mr Soutar's toes. For a moment angularity confronted rotundity, and then a grin of recognition overspread the new-comer's face. "Bob Soutar, as I live! he cried, "and in a lum hat! Man, what's turned you Tory?" 66 Mr Sinclair!" With an authoritative wave of the hand, the Chairman of the Reception Committee dismissed the irrelevant query, and signified that the Address of Welcome must first be delivered. "The honour devolves upon me, sir, of welcoming you back to your birthplace. Peden Knowe is proud to claim you as her son' One minute, Mr Soutar," exclaimed the guest of honour, 66 there are friends here that I must shake hands with first. Mrs Downie, you've changed little, and your face puts me in mind of the tawse. You should have brought them along with you to-day for the sake of auld lang syne." Mrs Downie felt without looking round that Mrs Moffat was amused. Why this young man should go out of his way to throw ridicule on Mr Downie's memory and her face she could not say. All she could do was to show him that she knew how to take an affront with dignity. Mr Soutar meantime was standing reproachfully with his notes in his hand waiting to continue the address, but the Minister of Queensland's Railways had now caught sight of Mr Begg, and was shaking him by the hand. "You're looking fine, sir. And how many bad characters have you had under lock and key in the coal-shed since I left?" Mr Begg was so taken aback by this direct reference to the unmentionable past that he could only look at the Chairman for his cue, and the latter did not fail him. Mr Soutar's patience was now at an end, and in the loud commanding tone that he had used in old electioneering days with an unruly audience, he resumed his speech. "Peden Knowe, sir, is proud to claim you as her son, and to welcome a distinguished statesman from His Majesty's Dominions Again Mr Soutar was held up, and by a gesture fully as commanding as his own. The distinguished statesman's roving eye had been travelling from face to face during the Chairman's short innings, and now he gave expression to what was in his mind in a voice that drowned Mr Soutar's. "Where's Chirstie?" he asked, "Chirstie that if he did not placate the Macqueen?" Minister of Queensland's Railways with some reply to his inquiry, a good deal more than the Address of Welcome might go by the board. 66 There was a long pause. Every one looked inquiringly at everybody else. Where was Chirstie Macqueen? It was a question that ought perhaps "I cannot really say why to have occurred to them all Miss Macqueen is not forward," sooner; but it had never en- he said soothingly, looking up tered their minds, for the simple and down the platform as reason that Chirstie, poor old though she might have conbody, was not one of the folk cealed herself somewhere. A that you put on Peden Knowe little oversight on somebody's Committees. It was absurd to part, no doubt. Maybe she think of her sitting along- took it you were arriving by side Mrs Downie, for example, car. But if you will now or even Mr Jameson (for all accompany us on foot to the his defence of her). Perhaps public hall-only a three minshe should have been asked to utes' walk as you may recollect attend on the platform to-day, we will have a message left but then she might have seen at Miss Macqueen's door as we through the compromise and pass, telling her to follow us taken offence. She was quite to the hall, where tea is to be as "tifty" in the temper as taken after the opening cereMrs Downie. mony. This way, if you please, Mr Sinclair." It was the guest of honour now who was showing signs of temper. He repeated his question with an impatient note in his voice. As one man the Committee turned again for guidance to their chosen spokesman, but on this occasion he failed them. He could not abandon the delivery of his address. "Honoured in the Councils," he murmured vaguely. He had missed a sentence with all those interruptions, and his finger was on the wrong place. The Chairman used his tall hat to indicate with one sweep of the arm the platform exit, the three minutes' walk, and the adjacent hall, and then, having replaced it on his head, led the way out on to the public road. It was a very glum-looking guest of honour that stood bare-headed whilst the school children sang their "Song of Welcome "-so glum - looking that Mr Begg could not refrain from whispering to his next-door "Honour be hanged," said neighbour that "he doubted the new-comer (or words to the ill-hadden, ill-faur'd loon that effect, for Mr Begg heard was no deid yet." And it was it as something stronger). a silent guest that stalked up "Where's Chirstie Macqueen?" the road by the Chairman's Mr Soutar realised at last side towards the village. At the heels of these two the Reception Committee followed -more like children in disgrace than folk of weight and standing. Clearly "some one had blundered," but the blame was not easily apportioned. It looked now as if Mr Soutar's idea, after long incubation, was going to prove addled after all. As for Mr Soutar, he was feeling thoroughly put about, and surely he had good reason. To be elected Chairman of a Reception Committee, to plan every detail of the programme, to prepare a fitting address, and then to have the whole thing flouted and flung back in your face, and all because an old woman of no consequence had not been bidden to the platform-fegs! it was enough to rouse all the Socialism in one. "A man's a man for a' that," though he be only Chairman of a Peden Knowe Committee, and the other a Cabinet Minister from the Dominions. Mr Soutar's thoughts at this stage were broken in upon by an abrupt question from the guest of honour. "Is that not Chirstie's house?" he said, jerking his head in the direction of a harled "but and ben " standing a little back from the road. "It is," said Mr Soutar, "and I'll tell off Mr Moffat to bring Miss Macqueen along with him later. We're behind time now, for we were due at the hall at 12.30 prompt, and we've got the Baldoch Prize Band waiting." The visitor stopped suddenly and turned upon his startled companion. "Look here, Mr Soutar," he said, do you expect me to pass Chirstie Macqueen's door after nineteen years' absence and not stop and ask for her? If you do, then you're not the Bob Soutar I remember holding forth about equality and fraternity at the town-foot of a Saturday evening; and I'm not Sandy Sinclair either if I give in to you. I'm going to stop at Chirstie's door now, and tell her I'm coming in to see her as soon as the hall is opened-and the band can wait." Those following closest at heel came in for the end of this speech, and were duly impressed. "Ye could tell fine he'd been bossing the folk out Australia way," said Mr Begg later. "He had Bob fair whammled, and there's no many can say thon." The Committee and the crowd behind were all eyes and ears now as they watched Mr Soutar go forward obediently and knock twice on Chirstie's door. Some seconds passed during which no notice of the knock was taken. Then the door was opened cautiously, and a grey head peered out at the crowd. It was plain enough, as Euphemia whispered to Janet Downie, that "the puir body's no redd up." Janet agreed as to the fact, but refused Chirstie her sympathy. "It's fair impudence in the woman letting on as though she didn't expect company. o' time, I'm thinking. It's Chirstie's no fool, an's she's just making game of us." From the half-opened door came an angry voice But the guest of honour quickly interposed. "Chirstie," said he, lifting his hat, "hae ye forgotten Sandy Sinclair ?" "I'll take Miss Macqueen, if you please," said the lady distantly. Then she stood, hands on hips, and stared at him. It gave the onlookers a queer impression to see the two confronting each othertheir distinguished visitor bareheaded in the dock, so to speak, before this unkempt old woman at her cottage door, sitting in judgment upon him. "So yon's Sandy, eh? The spelderin' halflin I mindit, and the wean I skelpit? A fine gentleman noo, in his braw claes wi' a handkerchief to his pocket. Mony's the flytin' I gie'd ye for takin' yir sleeve to yir neb. easy seein' the change, for it sets ye weel, but it's no' sae easy accountin' for it. Ye were a bad lad, and I've been weel rid o' ye a' thae years, but I'll say this for ye: ye've wrastled through whaur a wheen wadna, and ye've pickled in yir ain pock-neuk and made a man o' yirsel'. I bear ye nae ill-wull, and here's ma haund til't, Sandy." With that she wiped her hand on her apron, and extended it graciously towards the visitor. It was then that Euphemia Jameson had the satisfaction of seeing this romance of real life culminate as she and Lizzie would have wished - Lizzie being her little maid, with whom she shared those dreams of romantic novelette situations that she dared not disclose to Janet Downie. To Lizzie's sympathetic ear she poured out her contentment later in the evening. "Lizzie, it was just lovely!" she sighed. "It fair beat the pictures. When she wraxed him her haund, he stepped forrit, so that he had her whaur she couldna draw back, and he kissed her twice on the cheek. Ay! he did that in the face o' a' yon crowd, and wi' Chirstie lookin' gae thrawn and affrontit the while. "Chirstie!' says he ('Chirstie plain, mind you, and no' Miss Macqueen')-'Chirstie, ma dear, I've got to thank you for the first real welcome I've had in Peden Knowe the day'!" |