Ye will remember him best o' ony o' them, I reckon; for even when ye
were baith bits o' callants, there was a sort o' rivalship between ye
for the affections o' bonny Katie Alison, the loveliest lassie that
ever I had at my school. I hae frequently observed the looks o'
jealousy that used to pass between ye when she seemed to show mair
kindness to ane than anither; and, when ye little thocht I saw ye, I
hae noticed ane o' ye pushing oranges into her hand, and anither
sweeties. When she got a bit comb, too, to fasten up her gowden hair,
I weel divined whose pennies had purchased it--for they were yours,
doctor. I remember, also, hoo ye was aye a greater favourite wi' her
than Jamie, and hoo he challenged ye to fecht him for her affections,
and o'ercam' ye in the battle, and sent ye to the school next day wi'
yer face a' disfigured--and I, as in duty bound, gied each o' ye a
heartier thrashin than ye had gien ane anither. Katie hung her head a'
the time, and when she looked up, a tear was rowin in her bonny blue
een. But ye left the school and the country-side when ye was little
mair than seventeen; and the next thing that we heard o' ye was that
ye had gane oot to India about three years afterwards. Yer departure
evidently removed a load from Jamie's breast. He followed Katie like
her shadow, though with but little success, as far as I could
perceive, and as it was generally given out.
But, ye must remember, in his case the name o' Venturesome Jamie was
well applied. Never in my born days did I know such a callant. He
would have climbed the highest trees as though he had been speeling
owre a common yett, and swung himsel by the heels frae their topmost
branches. Oh, he was a terrible laddie! When I hae seen ye a' bathing
in the river, sometimes I used to tremble for him. He was a perfect
amphibious animal. I have seen him dive from a height of twenty or
thirty feet, and remain under the water till I almost lost my breath
wi' anxiety for his uprising; and then he would have risen at as many
yards distant from the place where he had dived. I recollect o'
hearing o' his permitting himsel to be suspended owre a precipice
aboon a hundred feet high, wi' a rope fastened round his oxters, and
three laddies like himsel hauding on by the ither end o't--and this
was dune merely to harry the nest o' a waterwagtail. Had the screams
o' the callants, who found him owre heavy for them, and that they were
unable to draw him up again, not brought some ploughmen to their
assistance, he must have been precipitated into eternity. However, as
I intended to say, it was shortly after the news arrived o' your
having sailed for India, that a fire broke out in the dead o' nicht in
a house occupied by Katie Alison's father. Never shall I forget the
uproar and consternation o' that terrible nicht. There was not a
countenance in the town but was pale wi' terror. The flames roared and
raged from every window, and were visible through some parts in the
roof. The great black clouds o' smoke seemed rushing from the crater
of a volcano. The floors o' the second storey were falling, and
crashing, and crackling, and great burning sparks, some o' them as big
as a man's hand, were rising in thousands and tens o' thousands from
the flaming ruins, and were driven by the wind, like a shower o' fire,
across the heavens. It was the most fearsome sight I had ever beheld.
But this was not the worst o't; for, at a window in the third storey,
which was the only one in the house from which the flames were not
bursting, stood bonny Katie Alison, wringing her hands and screaming
for assistance, while her gowden hair fell upon her shouthers, and her
cries were heard aboon the raging o' the conflagration. I heard her
cry distinctly, "My father!--my father!--will nobody save my father?"
for he lay ill of a fever in the room where she was, and was
unconscious of his situation. But there was none to render them
assistance. At times, the flames and the smoke, issuing from the
windows below, concealed her from the eyes of the multitude. Several
had attempted her rescue, but all of them had been forced to retreat,
and some of them scorched fearfully; for in many places the stairs had
given way, and the flames were bursting on every side. They were
attempting to throw up a rope to her assistance--for the flames issued
so fiercely from the lower window, that, though a ladder had been
raised, no man could have ascended it--when at that moment, my old
scholar, James Johnstone (Venturesome Jamie, indeed!), arrived. He
heard the cries o' Katie--he beheld her hands outstretched for
help--"Let me past!--let me past!--ye cowards! ye cowards!" cried he,
as he eagerly forced his way through the crowd. He rushed into the
door, from which the dense smoke and the sparks were issuing as from a
great furnace. There was a thrill o' horror through the crowd, for
they kenned his character, and they kenned also his fondness for
Katie--and no one expected to see him in life again. But, in less than
ten seconds from his rushing in at the door, he was seen to spring
forward to the window where Katie stood--he flung his arm round her
waist, and, in an instant, both disappeared--but, within a quarter of
a minute, he rushed out at the street-door, through the black smoke
and the thick sparks, wi' the bonny creature that he adored in his
arms. O doctor, had ye heard the shout that burst frae the
multitude!--there was not one amongst them at that moment that couldna
have hugged Jamie to his heart. His hands were sore burned, and on
several places his clothes were on fire. Katie was but little hurt;
but, on finding herself on the street, she cast an anxious and
despairing look towards the window from which she had been snatched,
and again wringing her hands, exclaimed, in accents of bitterness that
go through my heart to this day--
"My father! oh, my father! Is there no help for him?--shall my father
perish?"
"The rope!--gie me the rope!" cried Jamie.
He snatched it from the hand of a bystander, and again rushed into the
smoking ruins. The consternation of the crowd became greater, and
their anxiety more intense than before. Full three minutes passed, and
nothing was seen of him. The crowded street became as silent as death;
even those who were running backward and forward, carrying water, for
a time stood still. The suspense was agonising. At length he appeared
at the window, with the sick man wrapped up in the bedclothes, and
holding him to his side with his right arm around him. The hope and
fear of the people became indescribable. Never did I witness such a
scene--never may I witness such again! Having fastened one end of the
rope to the bed, he flung the other from the window to the street;
and, grasping it with his left hand, he drew himself out of the
window, with Katie's father in his arm, and, crossing his feet around
the rope, he slid down to the street, bearing his burden with him!
Then, sir, the congratulations o' the multitude were unbounded. Every
one was anxious to shake him by the hand; but what with the burning
his right hand had sustained, and the worse than burning his left had
suffered wi' the sliding down a rope frae a third storey, wi' a man
under his arm, I may say that my venturesome and gallant auld scholar
hadna a hand to shake.
Ye canna be surprised to hear--and, at the time o' life ye've arrived
at, ye'll be no longer jealous; besides, during dinner, I think ye
spoke o' having a wife and family--I say, therefore, doctor, that
ye'll neither be jealous nor surprised to hear, that from that day
Katie's dryness to Jamie melted down. Moreover, as ye had gane out to
India, where ye would be mair likely to look after siller than think
o' a wife, and as I understand ye had dropped correspondence for some
length o' time, ye couldna think yoursel in ony way slighted. Now,
folk say that "nineteen _nay-says_ are half a _yes_." For my part (and
my age is approaching the heels o' the patriarchs), I never put it in
the power o' woman born to say _No_ to me. But, as I have heard and
believe, Katie had said _No_ to Jamie before the fire, not only
nineteen times, but thirty-eight times twice told, and he found
seventy-six (which is about my age) nae nearer a _yea_ than the first
_nay_. And folk said it was a' on account o' a foolish passion for the
doctor laddie that had gane abroad. But Katie was a kind, gratefu
lassie. She couldna look wi' cauldness upon the man that had not only
saved her life, but her father's also; and I ought to have informed
you that, within two minutes from the time of her father's being
snatched from the room where he lay, the floor fell in, and the flames
burst from the window where Katie had been standing a few minutes
before.
Her father recovered from the fever, but he died within six months
after the fire, and left her a portionless orphan, or what was next
door to it. Jamie urged her to make him happy, and at last she
consented, and they were married. But ye remember that his parents
were in affluent circumstances; they thought he had demeaned himself
by his marriage, and they shut their door upon him, and disowned him
athegither. As he was his father's heir, he was brought up to no
calling or business whatsoever; and, when the auld man not only vowed
to cut him off wi' a shilling, on account of his marriage, but
absolutely got his will altered accordingly, what did the silly lad
do, but, in desperation, list into a regiment that was gaun abroad.
"The laddie has done it in a fit o' passion," said I, "and what will
become o' poor Katie?" Weel, although it was said that the lassie
never had ony particular affection for him, but just married him out
o' gratitude, and although several genteel families in the
neighbourhood offered her respectable and comfortable situations (for
she was universally liked), yet the strange creature preferred to
follow the hard fortunes o' Jamie, who had been disowned on her
account, and she implored the officers of the regiment to be allowed
to accompany him. It is possible that they were interested with her
appearance, and what they had heard of his connection, and the manner
in which he had been treated, for they granted her request; and about
a month after he enlisted, the regiment marched from Carlisle, and
Katie accompanied her husband. They went abroad somewhere--to the East
or West Indies, I believe; but from that day to this I have never
heard a word concerning either the one or the other, or whether they
be living or not. All I know is, that the auld man died within two
years after his son had become a soldier, and, keeping his resentment
to his last breath, actually left his property to a brother's son. And
that, sir, is all that I know of Venturesome Jamie and your old
sweetheart, Katie.
The doctor looked thoughtful, exceedingly thoughtful; and the old
dominie, acquiring additional loquacity as he went on, poured out
another glass, and added--
"But come, doctor, we will drink a bumper, 'for auld langsyne,' to the
lassie wi' the gowden locks, be she dead or living."
"With my whole heart and soul," replied the doctor, impassionedly;
and, pouring out a glass, he drained it to the dregs.
"The auld feeling is not quenched yet, doctor," said the venerable
teacher, "and I am sorry for it; for, had I known, I would have spoken
more guardedly. But I will proceed to gie ye an account o' the rest o'
your class-fellows, and I will do it briefly. There was Walter
Fairbairn, who went amongst ye by the name o'