SHORT STORY
Scottish Sketches
By
AMELIA E. BARR
New York
Dodd, Mead and Company
1898
COPYRIGHT, 1883,
BY
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.
CONTENTS
CRAWFORD'S SAIR STRAIT 7
JAMES BLACKIE'S REVENGE 101
FACING HIS ENEMY 163
ANDREW CARGILL'S CONFESSION 241
ONE WRONG STEP 267
LILE DAVIE 309
Crawford's Sair Strait.
CRAWFORD'S SAIR STRAIT.
CHAPTER I.
Alexander Crawford sat reading a book which he studied frequently with
a profound interest. Not the Bible: that volume had indeed its place
of honor in the room, but the book Crawford read was a smaller one; it
was stoutly bound and secured by a brass lock, and it was all in
manuscript. It was his private ledger, and it contained his bank
account. Its contents seemed to give him much solid satisfaction; and
when at last he locked the volume and replaced it in his secretary, it
was with that careful respect which he considered due to the
representative of so many thousand pounds.
He was in a placid mood, and strangely inclined to retrospection.
Thoughtfully fingering the key which locked up the record of his
wealth, he walked to the window and looked out. It was a dreary
prospect of brown moor and gray sea, but Crawford loved it. The bare
land and the barren mountains was the country of the Crawfords. He had
a fixed idea that it always had been theirs, and whenever he told
himself--as he did this night--that so many acres of old Scotland were
actually his own, he was aggressively a Scotchman.
"It is a bonnie bit o' land," he murmured, "and I hae done as my
father Laird Archibald told me. If we should meet in another warld
I'll be able to gie a good account o' Crawford and Traquare. It is
thirty years to-night since he gave me the ring off his finger, and
said, 'Alexander, I am going the way o' all flesh; be a good man, and
_grip tight_.' I hae done as he bid me; there is £80,000 in the
Bank o' Scotland, and every mortgage lifted. I am vera weel pleased
wi' mysel' to-night. I hae been a good holder o' Crawford and
Traquare."
His self-complacent reflections were cut short by the entrance of his
daughter. She stood beside him, and laid her hand upon his arm with a
caressing gesture. No other living creature durst have taken that
liberty with him; but to Crawford his daughter Helen was a being apart
from common humanity. She was small, but very lovely, with something
almost Puritanical in her dainty, precise dress and carefully snooded
golden hair.
"Father!"
"Helen, my bird."
"Colin is coming home. I have just had a letter from him. He has taken
high honors in Glasgow. We'll both be proud of Colin, father."
"What has he done?"
"He has written a prize poem in Latin and Greek, and he is second in
mathematics."
"Latin and Greek! Poor ghostlike languages that hae put off flesh and
blood lang syne. Poetry! Warse than nonsense! David and Solomon hae
gien us such sacred poetry as is good and necessary; and for sinfu'
love verses and such vanities, if Scotland must hae them, Robert Burns
is mair than enough. As to mathematics, there's naething against them.
A study that is founded on figures is to be depended upon; it has nae
flights and fancies. You ken what you are doing wi' figures. When is
this clever fellow to be here?"
"He is coming by the afternoon packet to-morrow. We must send the
carriage to meet it, for Colin is bringing a stranger with him. I came
to ask you if I must have the best guest-room made ready."
"Wha for?"
"He is an English gentleman, from London, father."
"And you would put an Englishman in the room where the twa last
Stuarts slept? I'll not hear tell o' it. I'm not the man to lift a
quarrel my fathers dropped, but I'll hae no English body in Prince
Charlie's room. Mind that, noo! What is the man's name?"
"Mr. George Selwyn."
"George Selwyn! There's nae Scotch Selwyns that I ken o'. He'll be
Saxon altogether. Put him in the East room."
Crawford was not pleased at his son bringing any visitor. In the first
place, he had important plans to discuss and carry out, and he was
impatient of further delay. In the second, he was intensely jealous of
Helen. Every young man was a probable suitor, and he had quite decided
that Farquharson of Blair was the proper husband for her. Crawford and
Blair had stood shoulder to shoulder in every national quarrel, and a
marriage would put the two estates almost in a ring fence.
But he went the next day to meet the young men. He had not seen his
son for three years, and the lad was an object very near and dear to
his heart. He loved him tenderly as his son, he respected him highly
as the future heir of Crawford and Traquare. The Crawfords were a very
handsome race; he was anxious that this, their thirteenth
representative, should be worthy, even physically, of his ancestors.
He drew a long sigh of gratification as young Colin, with open hands,
came up to him. The future laird was a noble-looking fellow, a dark,
swarthy Highlandman, with glowing eyes, and a frame which promised in
a few years to fill up splendidly.
His companion was singularly unlike him. Old Crawford had judged
rightly. He was a pure Saxon, and showed it in his clear, fresh
complexion, pale brown hair, and clear, wide-open blue eyes. But there
was something about this young man which struck a deeper and wider
sympathy than race--he had a heart beating for all humanity. Crawford
looked at him physically only, and he decided at once, "There is no
fear of Helen." He told himself that young Farquharson was six inches
taller and every way a far "prettier man." Helen was not of this
opinion. No hero is so fascinating to a woman as the man mentally and
spiritually above her, and whom she must love from a distance; and if
Crawford could have known how dangerous were those walks over the
springy heather and through the still pine woods, Mr. Selwyn would
have taken them far more frequently alone than he did.
But Crawford had other things to employ his attention at that time,
and indeed the young English clergyman was far beyond his mental and
spiritual horizon; he could not judge him fairly. So these young
people walked and rode and sailed together, and Selwyn talked like an
apostle of the wrongs that were to be righted and the poor perishing
souls that were to be redeemed. The spiritual warfare in which he was
enlisted had taken possession of him, and he spoke with the martial
enthusiasm of a young soldier buckling on his armor.
Helen and Colin listened in glowing silence, Helen showing her
sympathy by her flushing cheeks and wet eyes, and Colin by the
impatient way in which he struck down with his stick the thistles by
the path side, as if they were the demons of sin and ignorance and
dirt Selwyn was warring against. But after three weeks of this
intercourse Crawford became sensible of some change in the atmosphere
of his home. When Selwyn first arrived, and Crawford learned that he
was a clergyman in orders, he had, out of respect to the office,
delegated to him the conduct of family worship. Gradually Selwyn had
begun to illustrate the gospel text with short, earnest remarks, which
were a revelation of Bible truth to the thoughtful men and women who
heard them.
The laird's "exercises" had often been slipped away from, excuses had
been frequent, absentees usual; but they came to listen to Selwyn with
an eagerness which irritated him. In our day, the gospel of Christ has
brought forth its last beautiful blossom--the gospel of humanity. Free
schools, free Bibles, Tract and City Missions, Hospitals and Clothing
Societies, loving helps of all kinds are a part of every church
organization. But in the time of which I am writing they were unknown
in country parishes, they struggled even in great cities for a feeble
life.
The laird and his servants heard some startling truths, and the laird
began to rebel against them. A religion of intellectual faith, and
which had certain well-recognized claims on his pocket, he was willing
to support, and to defend, if need were; but he considered one which
made him on every hand his brother's keeper a dangerously democratic
theology.
"I'll hae no socialism in my religion, any more than I'll hae it in my
politics, Colin," he said angrily. "And if yon Mr. Selwyn belongs to
what they call the Church o' England, I'm mair set up than ever wi'
the Kirk o' Scotland! God bless her!"
They were sitting in the room sacred to business and to the memory of
the late Laird Archibald. Colin was accustomed to receive his father's
opinions in silence, and he made no answer to this remark. This time,
however, the laird was not satisfied with the presumed assent of
silence; he asked sharply, "What say ye to that, son Colin?"
"I say God bless the Kirk of Scotland, father, and I say it the more
heartily because I would like to have a place among those who serve
her."
"What are ye saying now?"
"That I should like to be a minister. I suppose you have no
objections."
"I hae vera great objections. I'll no hear tell o' such a thing.
Ministers canna mak money, and they canna save it. If you should mak
it, that would be an offence to your congregation; if ye should save
it, they would say ye ought to hae gien it to the poor. There will be
nae Dominie Crawford o' my kin, Colin. Will naething but looking down
on the warld from a pulpit sarve you?"
"I like art, father. I can paint a little, and I love music."
"Art! Painting! Music! Is the lad gane daft? God has gien to some men
wisdom and understanding, to ithers the art o' playing on the fiddle
and painting pictures. There shall be no painting, fiddling Crawford
among my kin, Colin."
The young fellow bit his lip, and his eyes flashed dangerously beneath
their dropped lids. But he said calmly enough,
"What is your own idea, father? I am twenty-two, I ought to be doing a
man's work of some kind."
"Just sae. That is warld-like talk. Now I'll speak wi' you anent a
grand plan I hae had for a long time." With these words he rose, and
took from his secretary a piece of parchment containing the plan of
the estate. "Sit down, son Colin, and I'll show you your inheritance."
Then he went carefully over every acre of moor and wood, of moss and
water, growing enthusiastic as he pointed out how many sheep could be
grazed on the hills, what shooting and fishing privileges were worth,
etc. "And the best is to come, my lad. There is coal on the estate,
and I am going to open it up, for I hae the ready siller to do it."
Colin sat silent; his cold, dissenting air irritated the excited laird
very much.
"What hae ye got to say to a' this, Colin?" he asked proudly, "for
you'll hae the management o' everything with me. Why, my dear son, if
a' goes weel--and it's sure to--we'll be rich enough in a few years to
put in our claim for the old Earldom o' Crawford, and you may tak your
seat in the House o' Peers yet. The old chevalier promised us a
Dukedom," he said sadly, "but I'm feared that will be aboon our
thumb--"
"Father, what are you going to do with the clansmen? Do you think
Highlandmen who have lived on the mountains are going to dig coal? Do
you imagine that these men, who, until a generation or two ago, never
handled anything but a claymore, and who even now scorn to do aught
but stalk deer or spear salmon, will take a shovel and a pickaxe and
labor as coal-miners? There is not a Crawford among them who would do
it. I would despise him if he did."
"There is a glimmer o' good sense in what you say, Colin. I dinna
intend any Crawford to work in my coal mine. Little use they would be
there. I'll send to Glasgow for some Irish bodies."
"And then you will have more fighting than working on the place; and
you'll have to build a Roman-catholic chapel, and have a Roman priest
in Crawford, and you ken whether the Crawfords will thole _that_ or
not."
"As to the fighting, I'll gie them no chance. I'm going to send the
Crawfords to Canada. I hae thought it all out. The sheilings will do
for the others; the land I want for sheep grazing. They are doing
naething for themsel's, and they are just a burden to me. It will be
better for them to gang to Canada. I'll pay their passage, and I'll
gie them a few pounds each to start them. You must stand by me in this
matter, for they'll hae to go sooner or later."
"That is a thing I cannot do, father. There is not a Laird of Crawford
that was not nursed on some clanswoman's breast. We are all kin. Do
you think I would like to see Rory and Jean Crawford packed off to
Canada? And there is young Hector, my foster-brother! And old Ailsa,
your own foster-sister! Every Crawford has a right to a bite and a sup
from the Crawford land."
"That is a' bygane nonsense. Your great-grandfather, if he wanted
cattle or meal, could just take the clan and go and harry some
Southern body out o' them. That is beyond our power, and it's an unca
charge to hae every Crawford looking to you when hunting and fishing
fails. They'll do fine in Canada. There is grand hunting, and if they
want fighting, doubtless there will be Indians. They will hae to go,
and you will hae to stand by me in this matter."
"It is against my conscience, sir. I had also plans about these poor,
half-civilized, loving kinsmen of ours. You should hear Selwyn talk of
what we might do with them. There is land enough to give all who want
it a few acres, and the rest could be set up with boats and nets as
fishers. They would like that."
"Nae doubt. But I don't like it, and I wont hae it. Mr. Selwyn may hae
a big parish in London, but the Crawfords arena in his congregation. I
am king and bishop within my ain estate, Colin." Then he rose in a
decided passion and locked up again the precious parchment, and Colin
understood that, for the present, the subject was dismissed.