Yell bide a wee, an hae something to eat? Lisbeth asked Saml, with her eyes on the goblet.
No, I thank ye, said Saml, with true gentility.
Yell better.
I dinna think it.
Hoots aye, whats to hender ye?
Weel, since yere sae pressin, Ill bide.
No one asked Sanders to stay. Bell could not, for she was but the servant, and Tnowhead knew that the kick his wife had given him meant that he was not to do so, either. Sanders whistled to show that he was not uncomfortable.
Ay, then, Ill be stappin ower the brae, he said at last.
He did not go, however. There was sufficient pride in him to get him off his chair, but only slowly, for he had to get accustomed to the notion of going. At intervals of two or three minutes he remarked that he must now be going. In the same circumstances Saml would have acted similarly. For a Thrums man, it is one of the hardest things in life to get away from anywhere.
At last Lisbeth saw that something must be done. The potatoes were burning, and Tnowhead had an invitation on his tongue.
Yes, Ill hae to be movin, said Sanders, hopelessly, for the fifth time.
Guid-nicht to ye, then, Sanders, said Lisbeth. Gie the door a fling-to ahent ye.
Sanders, with a mighty effort, pulled himself together. He looked boldly at Bell, and then took off his hat carefully. Saml saw with misgivings that there was something in it which was not a handkerchief. It was a paper bag glittering with gold braid, and contained such an assortment of sweets as lads bought for their lasses on the Muckle Friday.
Hae, Bell, said Sanders, handing the bag to Bell in an offhand way as if it were but a trifle. Nevertheless he was a little excited, for he went off without saying good-night.
No one spoke. Bells face was crimson. Tnowhead fidgeted on his chair, and Lisbeth looked at Saml. The weaver was strangely calm and collected, though he would have liked to know whether this was a proposal.
Sit in by to the table, Saml, said Lisbeth, trying to look as if things were as they had been before.
She put a saucerful of butter, salt, and pepper near the fire to melt, for melted butter is the shoeing-horn that helps over a meal of potatoes. Saml, however, saw what the hour required, and, jumping up, he seized his bonnet.
Hing the tatties higher up the joist, Lisbeth, he said, with dignity; Ise be back in ten meenits.
He hurried out of the house, leaving the others looking at each other.
What do ye think? asked Lisbeth.
I dna kin, faltered Bell.
Thae tatties is lang o comin to the boil, said Tnowhead.
In some circles a lover who behaved like Saml would have been suspected of intent upon his rivals life, but neither Bell nor Lisbeth did the weaver that injustice. In a case of this kind it does not much matter what Tnowhead thought.
The ten minutes had barely passed when Saml was back in the farm kitchen. He was too flurried to knock this time, and, indeed, Lisbeth did not expect it of him.
Bell, hae! he cried, handing his sweetheart a tinsel bag twice the size of Sanderss gift.
Losh preserve s! exclaimed Lisbeth; Ise warrant theres a shillins worth.
Theres a that, Lisbeth an mair, said Saml, firmly.
I thank ye, Saml, said Bell, feeling an unwonted elation as she gazed at the two paper bags in her lap.
Yere ower-extravegint, Saml, Lisbeth said.
Not at all, said Saml; not at all. But I widna advise ye to eat thae ither anes, Bell theyre second quality.
Bell drew back a step from Saml.
How do ye kin? asked the farmer, shortly, for he liked Sanders.
I speered i the shop, said Saml.
The goblet was placed on a broken plate on the table, with the saucer beside it, and Saml, like the others, helped himself. What he did was to take potatoes from the pot with his fingers, peel off their coats, and then dip them into the butter. Lisbeth would have liked to provide knives and forks, but she knew that beyond a certain point Tnowhead was master in his own house. As for Saml, he felt victory in his hands, and began to think that he had gone too far.
In the meantime Sanders, little witting that Saml had trumped his trick, was sauntering along the kirk-wynd with his hat on the side of his head. Fortunately he did not meet the minister.
The courting of Tnowheads Bell reached its crisis one Sabbath about a month after the events above recorded. The minister was in great force that day, but it is no part of mine to tell how he bore himself. I was there, and am not likely to forget the scene. It was a fateful Sabbath for Tnowheads Bell and her swains, and destined to be remembered for the painful scandal which they perpetrated in their passion.
Bell was not in the kirk. There being an infant of six months in the house it was a question of either Lisbeth or the lassies staying at home with him, and though Lisbeth was unselfish in a general way, she could not resist the delight of going to church. She had nine children besides the baby, and, being but a woman, it was the pride of her life to march them into the Tnowhead pew, so well watched that they dared not misbehave, and so tightly packed that they could not fall. The congregation looked at that pew, the mothers enviously, when they sang the lines:
Jerusalem like a city is
Compactly built together.
The first half of the service had been gone through on this particular Sunday without anything remarkable happening. It was at the end of the psalm which preceded the sermon that Sanders Elshioner, who sat near the door, lowered his head until it was no higher than the pews, and in that attitude, looking almost like a four-footed animal, slipped out of the church. In their eagerness to be at the sermon many of the congregation did not notice him, and those who did put the matter by in their minds for future investigation. Saml however, could not take it so coolly. From his seat in the gallery he saw Sanders disappear, and his mind misgave him. With the true lovers instinct he understood it all. Sanders had been struck by the fine turnout in the Tnowhead pew. Bell was alone at the farm. What an opportunity to work ones way up to a proposal! Tnowhead was so overrun with children that such a chance seldom occurred, except on a Sabbath. Sanders, doubtless, was off to propose, and he, Saml, was left behind.
The suspense was terrible. Saml and Sanders had both known all along that Bell would take the first of the two who asked her. Even those who thought her proud admitted that she was modest. Bitterly the weaver repented having waited so long. Now it was too late. In ten minutes Sanders would be at Tnowhead; in an hour all would be over. Saml rose to his feet in a daze. His mother pulled him down by the coat-tail, and his father shook him, thinking he was walking in his sleep. He tottered past them, however, hurried up the aisle, which was so narrow that Danl Ross could only reach his seat by walking sideways, and was gone before the minister could do more than stop in the middle of a whirl and gape in horror after him.
A number of the congregation felt that day the advantage of sitting in the loft. What was a mystery to those downstairs was revealed to them. From the gallery windows they had a fine open view to the south; and as Saml took the common, which was a short cut through a steep ascent, to Tnowhead, he was never out of their line of vision. Sanders was not to be seen, but they guessed rightly the reason why. Thinking he had ample time, he had gone round by the main road to save his boots perhaps a little scared by what was coming. Samls design was to forestall him by taking the shorter path over the burn and up the commonty.
It was a race for a wife, and several onlookers in the gallery braved the ministers displeasure to see who won. Those who favoured Samls suit exultingly saw him leap the stream, while the friends of Sanders fixed their eyes on the top of the common where it ran into the road. Sanders must come into sight there, and the one who reached this point first would get Bell.
As Auld Lichts do not walk abroad on the Sabbath, Sanders would probably not be delayed. The chances were in his favour. Had it been any other day in the week Saml might have run. So some of the congregation in the gallery were thinking, when suddenly they saw him bend low and then take to his heels. He had caught sight of Sanderss head bobbing over the hedge that separated the road from the common, and feared that Sanders might see him. The congregation who could crane their necks sufficiently saw a black object, which they guessed to be the carters hat, crawling along the hedge-top. For a moment it was motionless, and then it shot ahead. The rivals had seen each other. It was now a hot race. Saml dissembling no longer, clattered up the common, becoming smaller and smaller to the onlookers as he neared the top. More than one person in the gallery almost rose to their feet in their excitement. Saml had it. No, Sanders was in front. Then the two figures disappeared from view. They seemed to run into each other at the top of the brae, and no one could say who was first. The congregation looked at one another. Some of them perspired. But the minister held on his course.
Saml had just been in time to cut Sanders out. It was the weavers saving that Sanders saw this when his rival turned the corner; for Saml was sadly blown. Sanders took in the situation and gave in at once. The last hundred yards of the distance he covered at his leisure, and when he arrived at his destination he did not go in. It was a fine afternoon for the time of year, and he went round to have a look at the pig, about which Tnowhead was a little sinfully puffed up.
Ay, said Sanders, digging his fingers critically into the grunting animal, quite so.
Grumph, said the pig, getting reluctantly to his feet.
Ou, ay, yes, said Sanders thoughtfully.
Then he sat down on the edge of the sty, and looked long and silently at an empty bucket. But whether his thoughts were of Tnowheads Bell, whom he had lost for ever, or of the food the farmer fed his pig on, is not known.
Lord preserve s! are ye no at the kirk? cried Bell, nearly dropping the baby as Saml broke into the room.
Bell! cried Saml.
Then Tnowheads Bell knew that her hour had come.
Saml, she faltered.
Will ye hae s, Bell? demanded Saml, glaring at her sheepishly.
Ay, answered Bell.
Saml fell into a chair.
Bring s a drink o water, Bell, he said. But Bell thought the occasion required milk, and there was none in the kitchen. She went out to the byre, still with the baby in her arms, and saw Sanders Elshioner sitting gloomily on the pigsty.
Weel, Bell, said Sanders.
I thocht yed been at the kirk, Sanders, said Bell.
Then there was a silence between them.
Has Saml speered ye, Bell? asked Sanders, stolidly.
Ay, said Bell again, and this time there was a tear in her eye. Sanders was little better than an orra man, and Saml was a weaver, and yet But it was too late now. Sanders gave the pig a vicious poke with a stick, and when it had ceased to grunt, Bell was back in the kitchen. She had forgotten about the milk, however, and Saml only got water after all.
In after-days, when the story of Bells wooing was told, there were some who held that the circumstances would have almost justified the lassie in giving Saml the go-by. But these perhaps forgot that her other lover was in the same predicament as the accepted one that of the two, indeed, he was the more to blame, for he set off to Tnowhead on the Sabbath of his own accord, while Saml only ran after him. And then there is no one to say for certain whether Bell heard of her suitors delinquencies until Lisbeths return from the kirk. Saml could never remember whether he told her, and Bell was not sure whether, if he did, she took it in. Sanders was greatly in demand for weeks to tell what he knew of the affair, but though he was twice asked to tea to the manse among the trees, and subjected thereafter to ministerial cross-examinations, this is all he told. He remained at the pigsty until Saml left the farm, when he joined him at the top of the brae, and they went home together.
Its yersel, Sanders, said Saml.
It is so, Saml, said Sanders.
Very cauld, said Saml.
Blawy, assented Sanders.
After a pause
Saml, said Sanders.
Ay.
Im hearing yere to be mairit.
Ay.
Weel, Saml, shes a snod bit lassie.
Thank ye, said Saml.
I had ance a kin o notion o Bell mysel, continued Sanders.
Ye had?
Yes, Saml; but I thocht better o t.
Hoo d ye mean? asked Saml, a little anxiously.
Weel, Saml, mairitch is a terrible responsibeelity.
It is so, said Saml, wincing.
An no the thing to tak up withoot conseederation.
But its a blessed and honourable state, Sanders; yeve heard the minister on t.
They say, continued the relentless Sanders, at the minister doesna get on sair wi the wife himsel.
So they do, cried Saml, with a sinking at the heart.
Ive been telt, Sanders went on, at gin ye can get the upper han o the wife for a while at first, theres the mair chance o a harmonious exeestence.
Bells no the lassie, said Saml, appealingly, to thwart her man.
Sanders smiled.
D ye think she is, Sanders?
Weel, Saml, I dna want to fluster ye, but shes been ower-lang wi Lisbeth Fargus no to hae learned her ways. An abody kins what a life Tnowhead has wi her.
Guid sake, Sanders, hoo did ye no speak o this afore?
I thocht ye kent o t, Saml.
They had now reached the square, and the U. P. kirk was coming out. The Auld Licht kirk would be half an hour yet.
But, Sanders, said Saml, brightening up, ye was on yer wy to speer her yersel.
I was, Saml, said Sanders, and I canna but be thankfu ye was ower-quick for s.
Gin t hadna been you, said Saml, I wid never hae thocht o t.
Im saying naething agin Bell, pursued the other, but, man, Saml, a body should be mair deleeberate in a thing o the kind.
It was michty hurried, said Saml wofully.
Its a serious thing to speer a lassie, said Sanders.
Its an awfu thing, said Saml.
But well hope for the best, added Sanders, in a hopeless voice.
They were close to the tenements now, and Saml looked as if he were on his way to be hanged.
Saml!
Ay, Sanders.
Did ye did ye kiss her, Saml?
Na.
Hoo?
Theres was varra little time, Sanders.
Half an oor, said Sanders.
Was there? Man Sanders, to tell ye the truth, I never thocht o t.
Then the soul of Sanders Elshioner was filled with contempt for Saml Dickie.
The scandal blew over. At first it was expected that the minister would interfere to prevent the union, but beyond intimating from the pulpit that the souls of Sabbath-breakers were beyond praying for, and then praying for Saml and Sanders at great length, with a word thrown in for Bell, he let things take their course. Some said it was because he was always frightened lest his young men should intermarry with other denominations, but Sanders explained it differently to Saml.