When Mr. Armstrong made his appearance, after breakfast, he said, Helen
was doing as well as he could wish. She was likely to have the disease
very easily; and he hoped, in a few days, would be quite well. "I wish,"
added he, "that poor little Marion Scott may do as well. She is a delicate
creature, and her fever ran very high when I left her yesterday." He
added, he was going higher up the dale, and would not return till the
evening, and that he would see Helen on his way back. He spoke this on the
step of the door, as he was going out. John heard it, and, running up to
Mr. Martin, asked him if he might go up with Mr. Armstrong as far as Mr.
Scott's, "just to hear how poor Marion is, this morning, Sir." "Certainly,
my dear, I am glad that you thought of it; for I am very anxious to hear
of her myself. But, stop a moment, I will get you something for her that
may be useful; as it is not likely that Mrs. Scott should have any
herself." So saying, he went up to his wife, and asked her for a pot of
black currant jelly, of which a country clergyman's wife always takes care
to have a good supply, for the benefit of her poorer neighbours. John
having got his affairs carefully packed by Nelly, in a wicker basket, set
out at a good pace after Mr. Armstrong. As he walked along he could not
help remembering in what very different circumstance he had walked that
very road, only three days before. "Dear me," said he to himself, "who
could have thought that so very happy a day should have produced such
melancholy events? Here are we, all in sickness and anxiety, instead of
singing and conversing so pleasantly as we then did. I may just as well be
at the hill now, as with the Minister; for, even though Miss Helen should
get well, (which I hope and trust she will,) there can be no long walks
for a great while again. I remember, when I had this troublesome disease,
I was not able to run about, strongly, for nearly three months." As he
passed by Mr. Elliott's cottage, he gave it a look, and said, "Well, I
wish Miss Helen could live at that pretty place, when she grows to be a
woman; but I don't see how it can well happen, unless, indeed, Master
William should become a great man, (as why should he not? He is my
master's own son; and he is surely the best man in Eskdale;) then, to be
sure, he may very likely buy the farm, to please his sister, and live at
it with her; oh, dear! how I should like to see that day."
With such like airy castle building John amused himself till he reached
Mr. Scott's where he heard that Marion still continued very ill.
"I am so glad you have brought us the jelly," said Mrs. Scott, "for her
throat is very sore, and our own minister's family are all gone to
Edinburgh. The General Assembly is coming on, and he is a member this
year." The _General Assembly_ is a meeting of clergymen, chosen from the
different districts of Scotland. They assemble at Edinburgh once a year,
to judge and determine on the church affairs, that are brought before
them, from all parts of the country.
John only waited to hear how Marion was, and then with a sorrowful heart,
prepared to depart, when he saw Mr. Scott coming towards him. Mr. Scott
had a bunch of cuttings, from the hot-house plants in his hands, and,
holding them out to John, he said, "Here, yonker; You may have these, if
you like to take the trouble of carrying them; and, if you take pains and
put them into pots, they will grow and be very pretty; but you must water
them regularly, and in cold weather keep them within doors. I dare say
Mrs. Martin will thank you for them. If you will step with me into the
tool-house, I will give you some pots; for, perhaps, there may not be any
at the Minister's house."
John very thankfully accepted this offer, and Mr. Scott putting half a
dozen within each other, contrived to stow them into the wicker basket. At
first the delight which John felt at bringing home such a treasure,
prevented him from feeling the great weight of the basket; but he had not
walked far before he was obliged to put it down and stop to rest. He took
it up again, but the further he walked the oftener was he obliged to stop;
for Mr. Scott had considered more the size of the pots that his plants
required, than the strength of the carrier. "Oh, dear!" said John, at
last, "I do believe I shall be kept as long upon the road, with this heavy
basket, as Archie Kerr was in going to Langholm. What shall I do with it?
I cannot be so very ungrateful as to leave it on the road, after Mr. Scott
has been so kind as to give the pots to me; and how I shall get it home, I
am sure, I do not know. It will be dark night before I can reach the
Manse."
Just as he took it up, to proceed a little farther, he heard the voice of
some one singing near the spot where he was: he listened, and thought it
came from the river side; but the trees that grew in that direction
prevented him from seeing. He therefore put down his basket and ran across
the road, to try if he could discover whether it was any one he knew; and,
to his great delight, found it was Tom, David Little's son. Tom, as soon
as he saw John, skipped up to him and shook hands most cordially. "I am so
glad to see you," said he, "for you will tell Miss Helen that my chickens
are all alive yet; and mammy says if they live another week, I shall then
be pretty sure of rearing them, if I take care always to shut them up at
night, to prevent the fox from getting at them. They are nasty, greedy,
cruel creatures, these foxes and mammy says, I cannot be too watchful to
preserve my chickens from them; for they are very cunning, and are always
ready to seize the first opportunity of snapping up any thing that is left
in their way." John agreed, that all Tom said was quite true; for he
remembered, he had suffered himself from the depredations; having had a
whole brood of young ducks devoured in one night, when he lived near
Langholm. He then told Tom the distress he was in about his basket. Tom
immediately cried, "O, I will tell you how we will manage. Do you take out
three of the pots, and give them to me; and I will carry them as far as
the Manse for you; for my mammy will not expect me home for two hours. She
bade me go out and give Colly a walk; for he is quite stupid, and even
ill, for want of his usual exercise on the hills; so I thought I would
come down the glen and see the place where my daddy fell; and, do you know
the sensible beast ran directly up to the place, and lifted up in his
mouth my daddy's whip, which had been left there, I suppose, ever since
that terrible night. Look at it. It is a good whip, and my daddy will be
glad to have it back again; for he gave a shilling for it the last time he
went to Langhold with his master's cart; and surely he grudged the price,
but he was obliged to have it, for he could not drive the cart home
without it." "Well," said John, "if you really think, Tom, that your
mammy won't be frightened at your being so long, I shall be much obliged
to you to help me with my load; and I shall perhaps be able, some day, to
do you a favour, when you stand in as much need of assistance as I do
now."
Having divided the load, they found they could now very easily get along;
and they went on chatting, till all at once John recollected the measles.
"My dear Tom," asked he, "pray, tell me, have you ever had the measles?"
"No," replied Tom, "I have never had them, and mammy is very particular in
telling me, never go into any of the houses in the glen when they are
there. All the children, round us, had them last summer, but mammy never
let us go down the steps till they were quite gone, and so we escaped; but
why do you ask?"
John was silent for a minute, thinking how nearly he had led the poor
little fellow into a danger his mother had taken so much pains to guard
him against: he then said, "Tom, we must stop, and you must go home
directly. I dare say I shall manage to get the basket home some way or
other; but you must, on no account, go near the Manse. Miss Helen has got
the measles and is very ill. Besides," continued John, "poor Marion Scott
has got them very bad indeed, and I think you had best go home directly
and tell your mammy, for the disease will soon spread all around, and I
think you will be safest up the steps at this time, as you were last
summer." "I shall not like that at all," said Tom, "I was so tired living
up there. I was just as Colly is, and I dare say it will be the believe,
John, you are right; for it would never do for any of us to be ill when my
daddy is in the bed, and we are all obliged, till he is better, to sleep
on some straw, in the inner room, that we may not disturb him. But tell
Miss Helen all about the chickens, and that I am very sorry to hear she is
ill. Good bye to you, I hope you may meet somebody else who has had the
measles, and then they need not be afraid of helping you home with the
basket."
John was really glad when he saw Tom fairly gone. The consequences of the
poor child catching the disease, at this time, appeared to him dreadful;
and he began to think how fortunate he had been in recollecting the
measles before he had brought him into the Manse. With this comfortable
reflection, John trudged on with the basket, and, occupied with this own
thoughts, he did not feel the weight so overpowering as he had done before
he met Tom; he was however, obliged at last again to stop. As he was
resting himself, he saw a girl, about twelve years old, running down the
holm towards him. When she came up, she said "You don't know me, John
Telfer; but I am Peggy Oliphant, Mr. Elliott's herd-girl, that lives up in
that cottage, (pointing to the very cottage John had been planning for
Master William,) and Tom Little, whom I met as I was coming down, asked me
to run forward and help you with your basket, as I am going as far as
Langholm, on an errand of my mistress; you need not be afraid to let me go
to the Manse, for I have had the measles, and so has all my master's
children; we all had them last year."
"Thank you, Peggy," said John, "it is very kind of you, and very
attentive, in such a little boy as Tom is, to think of me and my basket; I
am sure I shall be glad of your assistance, for I am quite tired with it."
"Oh!" answered Peggy, "I shall do it with the greatest pleasure, that, or
any thing else, for any one that belongs to our good Minister; I was
sorely vexed to hear that Miss Helen was so bad. But have you heard the
news?" "No," answered John, "what is it?" "As I was taking away the
breakfast things this morning, Nanny being busy about something in the
kitchen, I heard my master read in the paper, that Capt. Elliott, your
mistress's brother, had been fighting with a French frigate, and had taken
her; and that he had brought her into some port in England, but I forget
the name. My master said he was glad of it, for the Captain was a brave
fellow, and an honour to the name of Elliott: and my mistress added, now
Mrs. Martin will get a sight of her only brother; in the last letter he
wrote to her, he promised that the first time he came into port, he would
endeavour to get leave of absence, to come down and see his old mother,
from whom he had been absent now for ten years."
"This is news, indeed, Peggy," replied John. "I am sure I wish it may be
true. I only hope he may not come before Miss Helen is better, for that
would spoil all my mistress's pleasure." Peggy and John went chatting
along till they reached the Manse, when they parted, John thanking her
very heartily for the assistance she had given him in carrying the
flowerpots.
As soon as he got in, he went and tapped at the study door. "Come in,
John," said Mr. Martin, "I heard your voice in the kitchen. Pray, how is
Marion?" "Very bad, indeed, Sir. Mrs. Scott said she had not slept all
night, and was quite delirious this morning. Mr. Armstrong said, that he
hoped the measles would be fully out by the evening, and he thought she
would then be better." After John had finished delivering his message, he
stood still and seemed hesitating whether to go or remain. Mr. Martin at
last observed this, and asked him if he had any thing more to say. "Why,
yes, Sir, if I thought that it would be right to tell you what I have
heard; but as it was only Peggy Oliphant that told me, I am afraid it may
not be true; as, I think, you or my mistress would have had a letter
yourselves, if the news had been really what she says." "What is it, my
dear, that you have heard? Peggy Oliphant's news I think cannot be of any
great consequence." "Yes, but it is, Sir, should it be true; for she says
her master read in the paper this morning that Capt. Elliott has taken a
French ship and has brought her safe to England." "That is indeed
important, John, and I must lose no time in ascertaining the truth of it.
Have you mentioned this story to any one but me?" "No, Sir, not a word; I
thought it best to come and tell it to you directly." "That is right, my
man; now you must promise not to tell any other person a word of the
matter till I return; I shall go up to Mr. Elliott's and see the paper
myself, before I say any thing to my wife, least it should prove some
mistake of Peggy Oliphant's."
Mr. Martin set out immediately for Mr. Elliott's, saying to his wife, he
was going to take a little walk. And John, having asked how Miss Helen
was, and heard she was continuing better, set about planting his
greenhouse slips. He found he had two or three different kinds of
geraniums, a rose-bush, and one or two myrtles. "O," said he to Nelly, who
stood by while he planted them, "I wish they may thrive, I shall have such
pleasure in giving them to Miss Helen, when she is better. Do you think
the Minister would let them stand in the study window, if I was to ask
him? for the sun shines best there, and I will take great care not to make
any dirt when I water them in the evening; you know, Nelly, I am to come
here every night to read to the Minister, and I can water them then." "You
come here every night to read to the Minister! You are surely dreaming,
child; what can you mean?" "Indeed and in very truth, I am saying nothing
but what he told me himself; and besides that he has settled it all with
Mr. Laurie; I am sure it is very kind of him: but, Nelly, do you know, I
am half afraid to come to him as a scholar, for when my poor father used
to teach me, I was sometimes very stupid and could not understand what he
told me? Now, if I should be so with the Minister, what will become of me?
I cannot expect him to have the patience with me that my father had; and
if he should be very angry with me, I shall be so frightened I shall wish
I had refused his kind offer; it must be a fearful thing to make the
Minister angry." "It is both a fearful thing and a wicked thing," answered
Nelly; "but there is one comfort for you, it is not very easily done. If
it really is as you say, that master his own self will condescend to teach
you, James Telfer, the shoemaker's son, to read! you must try, with all
your might, to learn as fast as you can, that you may give him as little
trouble as possible. Refuse, indeed, such an offer! you would have made
him angry in good earnest then, I believe, and with some reason. But,"
continued she, "above all things, be obedient, and do all he desires you."
Then, after being silent a little, she said, as if to herself, "I should
think he might have had enough of teaching, after all the trouble and
sorrow his own son cost him. I am sure, if that little violent monkey had
not been sent to school, he would have been the death of my master. I
never wish to hear of his teaching boys again, so little like sweet Miss
Helen; but it is all out of charity, I see that very well; just like his
kind heart."
Nelly proceeded now to prepare for dinner, and John, after planting his
slips, carried them to the green, and set them all in a row, that Mr.
Martin might see them, and give him an opportunity of asking his leave to
place them on the outside of his window. He had but just got them all
ready, when seeing Mr. Martin walking very quick up the lane, he ran to
open the gate. "It is all true, John." said his master. "Capt. Elliott has
really gained a great victory. It will be quite a cordial to your mistress
in the midst of her present uneasiness." So saying, without observing
John's plants, he hastened into the house, and went up to rejoice his
wife's heart with the good news. Helen was too unwell to be told any thing
of the matter at that time, as her mother was afraid of agitating her.
After dinner Mr. Martin observed from his window the flowerpots standing
on the green. "Where can these great flowerpots have come from?" asked he.
"Look at them, my dear, I cannot think who can have put them there." "I am
sure I don't know," said she, "how they came there, but we can soon ring
and ask." John was upon the watch, and as soon as he understood what was
wanted, came forward and made his request. "Certainly, my dear, you may
place them where you please; they are very pretty, and I think from their
appearance, they are likely to do you credit. Helen will be very proud of
her present; but how did you get the pots? I really did not know I had
such a thing in the garden." "I brought them with me from Mr. Scott's,"
said John. "He gave me them with the plants." "Why, you surely did not
carry these heavy pots all that long way." "No, Sir, I cannot say that I
carried them _all_ the way, for Tom Little carried some of them, until I
thought of the measles, and then I sent him back. Peggy Oliphant helped me
down the holm, and it was then she told me the story of Capt. Elliott."
"Upon my word, John, you are a very active little fellow, and deserve to
succeed in what you undertake, you are so persevering; I only hope I shall
find you equally industrious when you begin your reading lessons with me;
you remember we are to keep school for the first time tomorrow evening."
"Yes, Sir, I shall be sure to remember," said John as he left the room.