THE STATEMENT OF TIBBIE BIRSE
On a Thursday Pete Lownie was buried, and when Hendry returned from the
funeral Jess asked if Davit Lunan had been there.
"Na," said Hendry, who was shut up in the closet-bed, taking off his
blacks, "I heard tell he wasna bidden."
"Yea, yea," said Jess, nodding to me significantly. "Ay, weel," she
added, "we'll be hae'n Tibbie ower here on Saturday to deave's (weary
us) to death aboot it."
Tibbie, Davit's wife, was sister to Marget, Pete's widow, and she
generally did visit Jess on Saturday night to talk about Marget, who
was fast becoming one of the most fashionable persons in Thrums.
Tibbie was hopelessly plebeian. She was none of your proud kind, and
if I entered the kitchen when she was there she pretended not to see
me, so that, if I chose, I might escape without speaking to the like of
her. I always grabbed her hand, however, in a frank way.
On Saturday Tibbie made her appearance. From the rapidity of her walk,
and the way she was sucking in her mouth, I knew that she had strange
things to unfold. She had pinned a grey shawl about her shoulders, and
wore a black mutch over her dangling grey curls.
"It's you, Tibbie," I heard Jess say, as the door opened.
Tibbie did not knock, not considering herself grand enough for
ceremony, and indeed Jess would have resented her knocking. On the
other hand, when Leeby visited Tibbie, she knocked as politely as if
she were collecting for the precentor's present. All this showed that
we were superior socially to Tibbie.
"Ay, hoo are ye, Jess?" Tibbie said.
"Muckle aboot it," answered Jess; "juist aff an' on; ay, an' hoo hae ye
been yersel?"
"Ou," said Tibbie.
I wish I could write "ou" as Tibbie said it. With her it was usually a
sentence in itself. Sometimes it was a mere bark, again it expressed
indignation, surprise, rapture; it might be a check upon emotion or a
way of leading up to it, and often it lasted for half a minute. In
this instance it was, I should say, an intimation that if Jess was
ready Tibbie would begin.
"So Pete Lownie's gone," said Jess, whom I could not see from ben the
house. I had a good glimpse of Tibbie, however, through the open
doorways. She had the armchair on the south side, as she would have
said, of the fireplace.
"He's awa," assented Tibbie, primly.
I heard the lid of the kettle dancing, and then came a prolonged "ou."
Tibbie bent forward to whisper, and if she had anything terrible to
tell I was glad of that, for when she whispered I heard her best. For
a time only a murmur of words reached me, distant music with an "ou"
now and again that fired Tibbie as the beating of his drum may rouse
the martial spirit of a drummer. At last our visitor broke into an
agitated whisper, and it was only when she stopped whispering, as she
did now and again, that I ceased to hear her. Jess evidently put a
question at times, but so politely (for she had on her best wrapper)
that I did not catch a word.
"Though I should be struck deid this nicht," Tibbie whispered, and the
sibilants hissed between her few remaining teeth, "I wasna sae muckle
as speired to the layin' oot. There was Mysy Cruickshanks there, an'
Kitty Wobster 'at was nae friends to the corpse to speak o', but Marget
passed by me, me 'at is her ain flesh an' blood, though it mayna be for
the like o' me to say it. It's gospel truth, Jess, I tell ye, when I
say 'at, for all I ken officially, as ye micht say, Pete Lownie may be
weel and hearty this day. If I was to meet Marget in the face I
couldna say he was deid, though I ken 'at the wricht coffined him; na,
an' what's mair, I wouldna gie Marget the satisfaction o' hearin' me
say it. No, Jess, I tell ye, I dinna pertend to be on an equalty wi'
Marget, but equalty or no equalty, a body has her feelings, an' lat on
'at I ken Pete's gone I will not. Eh? Ou, weel. . . .
"Na faags a'; na, na. I ken my place better than to gang near Marget.
I dinna deny 'at she's grand by me, and her keeps a bakehoose o' her
ain, an' glad am I to see her doin' sae weel, but let me tell ye this,
Jess, 'Pride goeth before a fall.' Yes, it does, it's Scripture; ay,
it's nae mak-up o' mine, it's Scripture. And this I will say, though
kennin' my place, 'at Davit Lunan is as dainty a man as is in Thrums,
an' there's no one 'at's better behaved at a bural, being particularly
wise-like (presentable) in's blacks, an' them spleet new. Na, na,
Jess, Davit may hae his faults an' tak a dram at times like anither,
but he would shame naebody at a bural, an' Marget deleeberately
insulted him, no speirin' him to Pete's. What's mair, when the
minister cried in to see me yesterday, an' me on the floor washin',
says he, 'So Marget's lost her man,' an' I said, 'Say ye so, nae?' for
let on 'at I kent, and neither me at the laying oot nor Davit Lunan at
the funeral, I would not.
"'David should hae gone to the funeral,' says the minister, 'for I
doubt not he was only omitted in the invitations by a mistake.'
"Ay, it was weel meant, but says I, Jess, says I, 'As lang as am livin'
to tak chairge o' 'im, Davit Lunan gangs to nae burals 'at he's no
bidden to. An' I tell ye,' I says to the minister, 'if there was one
body 'at had a richt to be at the bural o' Pete Lownie, it was Davit
Lunan, him bein' my man an' Marget my ain sister. Yes,' says I, though
am no o' the boastin' kind, 'Davit had maist richt to be there next to
Pete 'imsel'.' Ou, Jess. . . .
"This is no a maiter I like to speak aboot; na, I dinna care to mention
it, but the neighbours is nat'rally ta'en up aboot it, and Chirsty Tosh
was sayin' what I would wager 'at Marget hadna sent the minister to
hint 'at Davit's bein' overlookit in the invitations was juist an
accident? Losh, losh, Jess, to think 'at a woman could hae the michty
assurance to mak a tool o' the very minister! But, sal, as far as that
gangs, Marget would do it, an' gae twice to the kirk next Sabbath, too;
but if she thinks she's to get ower me like that, she taks me for a
bigger fule than I tak her for. Na, na, Marget, ye dinna draw my leg
(deceive me). Ou, no. . . .
"Mind ye, Jess, I hae no desire to be friends wi' Marget. Naething
could be farrer frae my wish than to hae helpit in the layin' oot o'
Pete Lownie, an', I assure ye, Davit wasna keen to gang to the bural.
'If they dinna want me to their burals,' Davit says, 'they hae nae mair
to do than to say sae. But I warn ye, Tibbie,' he says, 'if there's a
bural frae this hoose, be it your bural, or be it my bural, not one o'
the family o' Lownies casts their shadows upon the corp.' Thae was the
very words Davit said to me as we watched the hearse frae the
sky-licht. Ay, he bore up wonderfu', but he felt it, Jess--he felt it,
as I could tell by his takkin' to drink again that very nicht. Jess,
Jess. . . .
"Marget's getting waur an' waur? Ay, ye may say so, though I'll say
naething agin her mysel. Of coorse am no on equalty wi' her,
especially since she had the bell put up in her hoose. Ou, I hinna
seen it mysel, na, I never gang near the hoose, an', as mony a body can
tell ye, when I do hae to gang that wy I mak my feet my friend. Ay,
but as I was sayin', Marget's sae grand noo 'at she has a bell in the
house. As I understan', there's a rope in the wast room, an' when ye
pu' it a bell rings in the east room. Weel, when Marget has company at
their tea in the wast room, an' they need mair watter or scones or
onything, she rises an' rings the bell. Syne Jean, the auldest lassie,
gets up frae the table an' lifts the jug or the plates an' gaes awa ben
to the east room for what's wanted. Ay, it's a wy o' doin' 'at's juist
like the gentry, but I'll tell ye, Jess, Pete juist fair hated the
soond o' that bell, an' there's them 'at says it was the death o' 'im.
To think o' Marget ha'en sic an establishment! . . .
"Na, I hinna seen the mournin', I've heard o't. Na, if Marget doesna
tell me naething, am no the kind to speir naething, an' though I'll be
at the kirk the morn, I winna turn my heid to look at the mournin'.
But it's fac as death I ken frae Janet McQuhatty 'at the bonnet's a'
crape, and three yairds o' crape on the dress, the which Marget calls a
costume. . . . Ay, I wouldna wonder but what it was hale watter the
morn, for it looks michty like rain, an' if it is it'll serve Marget
richt, an' mebbe bring doon her pride a wee. No 'at I want to see her
humbled, for, in coorse, she's grand by the like o' me. Ou, but . . ."