Christine: A Fife Fisher Girl - Amelia Barr 3 стр.

They are brave, good lads, and I dinna wonder they win all, an mair, than what they worked for. The lads o Maraschal College are fine scholars, and the vera pith o men. The hard wark and the frugality are good for them, and, Neil, we are expecting you to be head and front among them.

Then I must have the books to help me there.

That stands to reason; and if youll gie me your auld gown, Ill buy some flannel, and mak you a new one, just like it.

The college has its own tailor, Christine. I believe the gowns are difficult to make. And what is more, I shall be obligated to have a new kirk suit. You see I go out with Ballister a good deal very best families and all that and I must have the clothes conforming to the company. Ballister might nae doubt would lend me the money but

What are you talking anent? Borrowing is sorrowing, aye and shaming, likewise. Im fairly astonished at you naming such a thing! If you are put to a shift like that, Christine can let you hae the price o a suit o clothing.

O Christine, if you would do that, it would be a great favor, and a great help to me. Ill pay you back, out of the first money I make. The price o the books I shall have to coax from Mother.

Youll hae no obligation to trouble Mother. Ask your feyther for the books you want. He would be the vera last to grudge them to you. Speak to him straight, and bold, and youll get the siller wi a smile and a good word.

If you would ask him for me.

I will not!

Yes, you will, Christine. I have reasons for not doing so.

You hae just one reason simple cowardice. O Man! If you are a coward anent asking a new suit o clothes for yoursel, what kind o a lawyer will you mak for ither folk?

You know how Father is about giving money.

Ay, Feyther earns his money wi his life in his hands. He wants to be sure the thing sought is good and necessary. Feythers right. Now my money was maistly gien me, I can mair easily risk it.

There is no risk in my promise to pay.

You havna any sure contract wi Good Fortune, Neil, and it will be good and bad wi you, as it is wi ither folk.

I do not approve of your remarks, Christine. When people are talking of the fundamentals and surely money is one of them they ought to avoid irritating words.

Youll mak an extraordinar lawyer, if you do that, but Im no sure that you will win your case, wanting them. I thought they were sort o necessitated; but crooked and straight is the law, and it is well known that what it calls truth today, may be far from truth tomorrow.

What ails you today, Christine? Has the law injured you in any way?

Ay, it played us a a trick. When you took up the books, and went to the big school i the toun to prepare for Aberdeen, we all o us thought it was Kings College you were bound for, and then when you were ready for Aberdeen, you turned your back on Kings College, and went to the Maraschal.

Kings College is for the theology students. The Maraschal is the law school.

I knew that. We a know it. The Maraschal spelt a big disappointment to feyther and mysel.

I have some work to finish, Christine, and I will be under an obligation if you will leave me now. You are in an upsetting temper, and I think you have fairly forgotten yourself.

Well Im awa, but mind you! When the fishing is on, I canna be at your bidding. Im telling you!

Just so.

Ill hae no time for you, and your writing. Ill be helping Mither wi the fish, from the dawn to the dark.

Would you do that?

Would I not?

She was at the open door of the room as she spoke, and Neil said with provoking indifference: If you are seeing Father, you might speak to him anent the books I am needing.

Ill not do it! What are you feared for? Youre parfectly unreasonable, parfectly ridic-lus! And she emphasized her assertions by her decided manner of closing the door.

On going into the yard, she found her father standing there, and he was looking gravely over the sea. Feyther! she said, and he drew her close to his side, and looked into her lovely face with a smile.

Are you watching for the fish, Feyther?

Ay, I am! They are long in coming this year.

Every year they are long in coming. Perhaps we are impatient.

Just sae. We are a ready for them watching for them Cluny went to Cupar Head to watch. He has a fine sea-sight. If they are within human ken, he will spot them, nae doubt. What hae you been doing a the day lang?

I hae been writing for Neil. He is uncommon anxious about this session, Feyther.

He ought to be.

He is requiring some expensive books, and he is feared to name them to you; he thinks you hae been sae liberal wi him already if I was you, Feyther, I would be asking him quietly when you were by your twa sels if he was requiring anything i the way o books.

He has had a big sum for that purpose already, Christine.

I know it, Feyther, but Im not needing to tell you that a man must hae the tools his wark is requiring, or he canna do it. If you set Neil to mak a table, youd hae to gie him the saw, and the hammer, and the full wherewithals, for the makin o a table; and when you are for putting him among the Edinbro Law Lords, youll hae to gie him the books that can teach him their secrets. Isnt that fair, Feyther?

Im not denying it.

Weel then, youll do the fatherly thing, and seeing the laddie is feared to ask you for the books, youll ask him, Are you wanting any books for the finishing up, Neil? You see it is just here, Feyther, he could borrow the books

Hang borrowing!

Just sae, you are quite right, Feyther. Neil says if he has to borrow, hell never get the book when he wants it, and that he would never get leave to keep it as long as he needed. Now Neil be to hae his ain books, Feyther, he will mak good use o them, and we must not fail him at the last hour.

Whas talking o failing him? Not his feyther, Im sure! Do I expect to catch herrings without the nets and accessories? And I ken that Ill not mak a lawyer o Neil, without the Maraschal and the books it calls for.

You are the wisest and lovingest o feythers. When you meet Neil, and you twa are by yoursels, put your hand on Neils shoulder, and ask Neil, Are you needing any books for your last lessons?

Ill do as you say, dear lass. It is right I should.

Nay, but he should ask you to do it. If it was mysel, I could ask you for anything I ought to have, but Neil is vera shy, and he kens weel how hard you wark for your money. He canna bear to speak o his necessities, sae Im speaking the word for him.

Thy word goes wi me always. Ill neer say nay to thy yea, and he clasped her hand, and looked with a splendid smile of affection into her beautiful face. An English father would have certainly kissed her, but Scotch fathers rarely give this token of affection. Christine did not expect it, unless it was her birthday, or New Years morning.

It was near the middle of July, when the herring arrived. Then early one day, Ruleson, watching the sea, smote his hands triumphantly, and lifting his cap with a shout of welcome, cried

Theres our boat! Cluny is sailing her! Hes bringing the news! They hae found the fish! Come awa to the pier to meet them, Christine.

Theres our boat! Cluny is sailing her! Hes bringing the news! They hae found the fish! Come awa to the pier to meet them, Christine.

With hurrying steps they took the easier landward side of descent, but when they reached the pier there was already a crowd of men and women there, and the Sea Gull, James Rulesons boat, was making for it. She came in close-hauled to the wind, with a double reef in her sail. She came rushing across the bay, with the water splashing her gunwale. Christine kept her eyes upon the lad at the tiller, a handsome lad, tanned to the temples. His cheeks were flushed, and the wind was in his hair, and the sunlight in his eyes, and he was steering the big herring boat into the harbor.

The men were soon staggering down to the boats with the nets, coiling them up in apparently endless fashion, and as they were loaded they were very hard to get into the boats, and harder still to get out. Just as the sun began to set, the oars were dipped, and the boats swept out of the harbor into the bay, and there they set their red-barked sails, and stood out for the open sea.

Rulesons boat led the way, because it was Rulesons boat that had found the fish, and Christine stood at the pier-edge cheering her strong, brave father, and not forgetting a smile and a wave of her hand for the handsome Cluny at the tiller. To her these two represented the very topmost types of brave and honorable humanity. The herring they were seeking were easily found, for it was the Grand Shoal, and it altered the very look of the ocean, as it drove the water before it in a kind of flushing ripple. Once, as the boats approached them, the shoal sank for at least ten minutes, and then rose in a body again, reflecting in the splendid sunset marvelous colors and silvery sheen.

With a sweet happiness in her heart, Christine went slowly home. She did not go into the village, she walked along the shore, over the wet sands to the little gate, which opened upon their garden. On her way she passed the life-boat. It was in full readiness for launching at a moments notice, and she went close to it, and patted it on the bow, just as a farmers daughter would pat the neck of a favorite horse.

Ye hae saved the lives of men, she said. God bless ye, boatie! and she said it again, and then stooped and looked at a little brass plate screwed to the stern locker, on which were engraved these words:

And as she climbed the garden, she thought of the lad who had left Culraine thirty years ago, and gone to Glasgow to learn ship building, and who had given this boat to his native village out of his first savings. And it has been a lucky boat, she said softly, every year it has saved lives, and then she remembered the well-known melody, and sang joyously

Then with a merry, inward laugh she stopped, and said with pretended displeasure: Be quiet, Christine! Youre makin poetry again, and you shouldna do the like o that foolishness. Neil thinks it isna becoming for women to mak poetry he says men lose their good sense when they do it, and women! He hadna the words for their shortcomings in the matter. He could only glower and shake his head, and look up at the ceiling, which he remarked needed a coat o clean lime and water. Weel, I suppose Neil is right! Theres many a thing not becomin to women, and nae doubt makin poetry up is among them.

When she entered the cottage, she found the Domine, Dr. Magnus Trenabie, drinking a cup of tea at the fireside. He had been to the pier to see the boats sail, for all the men of his parish were near and dear to him. He was an extraordinary man a scholar who had taken many degrees and honors, and not exhausted his mental powers in getting them a calm, sabbatic mystic, usually so quiet that his simple presence had a sacramental efficacy a man who never reasoned, being full of faith; a man enlightened by his heart, not by his brain.

Being spiritually of celestial race, he was lodged in a suitable body. Its frame was Norse, its blood Celtic. He appeared to be a small man, when he stood among the gigantic fishermen who obeyed him like little children, but he was really of average height, graceful and slender. His head was remarkably long and deep, his light hair straight and fine. The expression of his face was usually calm and still, perhaps a little cold, but there was every now and then a look of flame. Spiritually, he had a great, tender soul quite happy to dwell in a little house. Men and women loved him, he was the angel on the hearth of every home in Culraine.

When Christine entered the cottage, the atmosphere of the sea was around and about her. The salt air was in her clothing, the fresh wind in her loosened hair, and she had a touch of its impetuosity in the hurry of her feet, the toss of her manner, the ring of her voice.

O Mither! she cried, then seeing the Domine, she made a little curtsey, and spoke to him first. I was noticing you, Sir, among the men on the pier. I thought you were going with them this night.

They have hard work this night, Christine, and my heart tells me they will be wanting to say little words they would not like me to hear.

You could hae corrected them, Sir.

I am not caring to correct them, tonight. Words often help work, and tired fishers, casting their heavy nets overboard, dont do that work without a few words that help them. The words are not sinful, but they might not say them if I was present.

I know, Sir, answered Margot. I hae a few o such words always handy. When Im hurried and flurried, I canna help them gettin outside my lips but theres nae ill in them they just keep me going. I wad gie up, wanting them.

When soldiers, Margot, are sent on a forlorn hope of capturing a strong fort, they go up to it cheering. When our men launch the big life-boat, how do they do it, Christine?

Cheering, Sir!

To be sure, and when weary men cast the big, heavy nets, they find words to help them. I know a lad who always gets his nets overboard with shouting the name of the girl he loves. He has a name for her that nobody but himself can know, or he just shouts Dearie, and with one great heave, the nets are overboard. And as he said these words he glanced at Christine, and her heart throbbed, and her eyes beamed, for she knew that the lad was Cluny.

I was seeing our life-boat, as I came home, she said, and I was feeling as if the boat could feel, and if she hadna been sae big, I would hae put my arms round about her. I hope that wasna any kind o idolatry, Sir?

No, no, Christine. It is a feeling of our humanity, that is wide as the world. Whatever appears to struggle and suffer, appears to have life. See how a boat bares her breast to the storm, and in spite of winds and waves, wins her way home, not losing a life that has been committed to her. And nothing on earth can look more broken-hearted than a stranded boat, that has lost all her men. Once I spent a few weeks among the Hovellers that is, among the sailors who man the life-boats stationed along Godwin Sands; and they used to call their boats darlings and beauties and praise them for behaving well.