Were beholden to you, sir, but its a sore burden on
your good-nature.
Were beholden to you, sir, but its a sore burden on
your good-nature. A platter full of coarse salt lay atthe foot of the bed, and at
the top crossed twigs of ash.
I would have left thechoice to every mans
conscience. A grotesque figure emerged from the dusk. It shied at nothingvisible,
jibbed, reared, breathing all the while as if its windwere touched.
David saw from the mans facethat he was grey with
fatigue. Sempill, and dinna let on that Gibbie telled ye. Again the minister laughed
athimself, but without conviction.
Sempill, and dinna let on that Gibbie telled
ye.
I mind I repeated the heids o your sermon
toMirren.
But gang your ways,sir, for a man o God is no like
common folk.
The change seemed to easehim, and he lost his air
of heavy preoccupation and let his eyeswander. Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per
umbram,were the words he spoke. His active form, his colour, his tumbled hair, spoke
of theboy, but his face was not boyish.
His active form, his colour, his tumbled hair,
spoke of theboy, but his face was not boyish.
He reciteda psalm, but his voice, for usual notably
full and mellow, seemednot to carry a yard.
Losh, heres the lexicon of Bamburgius, of which
Ihave read but have never seen. Muirhead hadadmitted that it must be queer to live
so near it, and Mr.
Thetroopers were humane men, for they seemed to
have a curious care oftheir servant. A steep stairway ran upward a yard or two from
the doorway. But thats through the Wud, Isobel gasped.
How many appended their names out offear or from
mere carnal policy? Ive brought you to Calidon, he said, andnow Ill take my leave.
The mans face seemed to narrow in fear and then to expand inconfidence. The host
winked and then laughedboisterously.
The bircheswere still like smoke, but a turbid
smoke from some unhallowedaltar. His mind had been running on heathenlearning, and
he wondered if the name were Greek.
There dwelled his people, the little flock whom God
had appointedhim to feed.
Nor did I know, said David, that Virgil was the
common readingof Levens men. Sempill, and, as is natural inyouth, with but a small
experience of religion.
When King Josiah made a solemn covenant, did he
leave it to ilkamans fancy to sign or no?
Theres a good browst of yill, and plentyof French
cordial and my fathers Canary sack. The ministerinstinctively gripped his staff
tighter, but Gibbies intention wasof the friendliest.
So absorbed was he in his surroundings that it was
witha start that he saw the master of the house.
Andthen, at one step the Wood ceased and he was
among meadows. The owls kept up a continuous calling, and therewas another bird with
a note like a rusty saw. He thought that it was because a child is shielded
byinnocence from ugliness.
CHAPTER IIIGUESTS IN CALIDON TOWERWill you enter,
sirs?