Alec Forbes of Howglen Part 86

"I'll bide till ye hae gotten rid o' Bruce, ony gait.?-I care naething for yer sma' separatist kirkies.-?I wonner ye dinna pray for a clippin'

o' an auld sun that ye micht do withoot the common daylicht. But I do think it's a great shame?-that sic a sneak sud be i' the company o'

honest fowk, as I tak the maist o' ye to be. Sae I'll do my best. Ye'll hear frae me in a day or twa."

Cupples had remembered the inscription on the fly-leaf of the big Bible, which, according to Thomas Crann, Mr Cowie had given to Annie.

He now went to James Dow.

"Did Annie ever tell ye aboot a Bible that Mr Cowie ga'e her, Jeames?"

"Ay did she. I min' 't fine."

"Cud ye get a haud o' 't."

"Eh! I dinna ken. The crater has laid his ain cleuks upo' 't. It's a sod pity that Annie's oot o' the hoose, or she micht hae stown't (stolen it)."

"Truly, bein' her ain, she micht. But ye're a kin' o' a guairdian till her?-arena ye?"

"Ow! ay. I hae made mysel' that in a way; but Bruce wad aye be luikit upon as the proper guairdian."

"Hae ye ony haud upo' the siller?"

"I gart him sign a lawyer's paper aboot it."

"Weel, ye jist gang and demand the Bible, alang wi' the lave o' Annie's property. Ye ken she's had trouble aboot her kist (chest), and canna get it frae the swallowin' cratur'. And gin he maks ony demur, jist drap a hint o' gaein to the lawyer aboot it. The like o' him's as fleyt at a lawyer as cats at cauld water. Get the Bible we maun. And ye maun fess't to me direckly."

Dow was a peaceable man, and did not much relish the commission.

Cupples, thinking he too was a missionar, told him the story.

"Weel," said Dow, "lat him sit there. Maybe they'll haud him frae doin'

mair mischeef. Whan ye jabble a stank, the stink rises."

"I thocht ye was ane o' them. Ye maunna lat it oot."

"Na, na. I a' haud my tongue."

"_I_ care naething aboot it. But there's Thamas Crann jist eatin' his ain hert. It's a sin to lat sic a man live in sic distress."

"'Deed is't. He's a gude man that. And he's been verra kin' to oor Annie, Mr Cupples,?-I'll do as ye say. Whan do ye want it?"

"This verra nicht."

So after his day's work, which was hard enough at this season of the year, was over, James Dow put on his blue Sunday coat, and set off to the town. He found Robert Bruce chaffering with a country girl over some b.u.t.ter, for which he wanted to give her less than the market-value. This roused his indignation, and put him in a much fitter mood for an altercation.

"I winna gie ye mair nor fivepence. Hoo are ye the day, Mr Doo? I tell ye it has a goo (Fren. go?t) o' neeps or something waur."

"Hoo can that be, Mr Bruce, at this sizzon o' the year, whan there's plenty o' gerss for man an' beast an' a' cratur?" said the girl.

"It's no for me to say hoo it can be. That's no my business. Noo, Mr Doo?"

Bruce, whose very life lay in driving bargains, had a great dislike to any interruption of the process. Yet he forsook the girl as if he had said all he had to say, and turned to James Dow. For he wanted to get rid of him before concluding his bargain with the girl, whose b.u.t.ter he was determined to have even if he must pay her own price for it. Like the Reeve in the Canterbury Tales, who "ever rode the hinderest of the rout," being such a rogue and such a rogue-catcher that he could not bear anybody behind his back, Bruce, when about the business that his soul loved, eschewed the presence of any third person.

"Noo, Mr Doo?" he said.

"My business'll keep," replied Dow.

"But ye see we're busy the nicht, Mr Doo."

"Weel, I dinna want to hurry ye. But I wonner that ye wad buy ill b.u.t.ter, to please onybody, even a bonnie la.s.s like that."

"Some fowk likes the taste o' neeps, though I dinna like it mysel',"

answered Bruce. "But the fac' that neeps is no a favourite wi' the maist o' fowk, brings doon the price i' the market."

"Neeps is neither here nor there," said the girl; and taking up her basket, she was going to leave the shop.

"Bide a bit, my la.s.s," cried Bruce. "The mistress wad like to see ye.

Jist gang benn the hoose to her wi' yer basket, and see what she thinks o' the b.u.t.ter. I may be wrang, ye ken."

So saying he opened the inner door, and ushered the young woman into the kitchen.

"Noo, Mr Doo?" he said once more. "Is't tobawco, or sneeshin (snuff), or what is't?"

"It's Annie Anderson's kist and a' her gear."

"I'm surprised at ye, Jeames Doo. There's the la.s.sie's room up the stair, fit for ony princess, whanever she likes to come back till't.

But she was aye a royt (riotous) la.s.sie, an' a reglar rintheroot."

"Ye lee, Rob Bruce," exclaimed Dow, surprised out of his proprieties.

"Whaever ye say that till, dinna say't to me."

Bruce was anything but a quarrelsome man with other than his inferiors.

He pocketed the lie very calmly.

"Dinna lowse yer temper, Mr Doo. It's a sair fau't that."

"Jist ye deliver up the bairn's eff.e.c.ks, or I'll gang to them that'll gar ye."

"Wha micht that be, Mr Doo?" asked Bruce, wishing first to find out how far Dow was prepared to go.

"Ye hae no richt whatever to keep that la.s.sie's claes, as gin she aucht (owed) you onything for rent."

"Hae _ye_ ony richt to tak them awa'? Hoo ken I what'll come o' them?"

"Weel, I s' awa' doon to Mr Gibb, and we'll see what can be dune there.

It's weel kent ower a' Glamerton, Mr Bruce, in what mainner you and yer haill hoose hae borne yersels to that orphan la.s.sie; and I'll gang into ilka chop, as I gang doon the street, that is, whaur I'm acquant, and I'll jist tell them whaur I'm gaun, and what for."

The thing which beyond all others Bruce dreaded was unremunerative notoriety.

"Hoots! Jeames Doo, ye dinna ken jokin' frae jeistin'. I never was the man to set mysel' i' the face o' onything rizzonable. But ye see it wad be cast up to the haill o' 's that we had driven the puir la.s.sie oot o'

the hoose, and syne flung her things efter her."