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diff --git a/27983.txt b/27983.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..600dc49 --- /dev/null +++ b/27983.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4453 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Orphans of Glen Elder, by Margaret Murray Robertson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Orphans of Glen Elder + +Author: Margaret Murray Robertson + +Illustrator: G.E. Robertson + +Release Date: February 3, 2009 [EBook #27983] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORPHANS OF GLEN ELDER *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +The Orphans of Glen Elder, by Margaret Murray Robertson. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +AUNT JANET'S VISIT. + +"Up to the fifth landing, and then straight on. You canna miss the +door." + +For a moment the person thus addressed stood gazing up into the darkness +of the narrow staircase, and then turned wearily to the steep ascent. +No wonder she was weary; for at the dawn of that long August day, now +closing so dimly over the smoky town, her feet had pressed the purple +heather on the hills that skirt the little village of Kirklands. A +neighbouring farmer had driven her part of the way, but she had walked +since then seven-and-twenty miles of the distance that lay between her +and her home. + +But it was not weariness alone that deepened the shadow on her brow as +she passed slowly upwards. Uncertainty with regard to the welfare of +dear friends had long been taking the form of anxious fears; and now her +fears were rapidly changing into a certainty of evil. Her heart +sickened within her as she breathed the hot, stifling air; for she knew +that her only brother's orphan children had breathed no other air than +that during the long, hot weeks of summer. + +At length she reached the door to which she had been directed; and, as +she stood for a moment before it, the prayer that had often risen in her +heart that day, burst, in strong, brief words, from her lips. + +There was no sound in the room, and it was some time before her eyes +became accustomed to the dim light around her. Then the glimpse she +caught, through the half-open door, of one or two familiar objects,--the +desk which had been her father's, and the high-backed chair of carved +oak in which her mother used to sit so many, many years ago,--assured +her that she had reached her journey's end. + +On a low bed, just opposite the door through which she gazed, lay a boy, +apparently about ten years of age. His face was pale and thin, and he +moved his head uneasily on his pillow, as though very weary or in pain. +For a time all sense of fatigue was forgotten by the traveller, so +occupied was she in tracing in that fair little face a resemblance to +one dearly beloved in former years--her only brother, and the father of +the child. + +Suddenly he raised himself up; and, leaning his head upon his hand, +spoke to some one in another part of the room. + +"Oh me! oh me!" he said faintly; "the time seems so long! Surely she +must be coming now." + +"It's Saturday night, you ken," said a soft voice, in reply. "She can't +be home quite so soon to-night. But the shadow of the speir has got +round to the yew-tree at the gate, and it won't be long now." + +The little head sank back on the pillow again, and there was a pause. +"Oh me!" he murmured again, "it seems so long! I wish it was all at an +end." + +"What do you wish was at an end?" said the same low voice again. + +"All these long days and my mother's going out when she's not able to +go, and you sewing so busy all the day, and me waiting, waiting, never +to be well again. Oh, Lily, I wish I was dead." + +There was the sound of a light step on the floor, and a little girl's +grave, pale face bent over the boy. + +"Whisht, Archie!" said she, gravely, as she smoothed the pillow and +placed his restless head in a more easy posture. "Do you not ken it's +wrong for you to say the like of that? It's an awful thing to die, +Archie." + +"Well, if it's wrong to be weary of lying here, I can't help it," said +the child; "but it's surely not wrong to wish to die and go to heaven, +yon bonny place!" + +"But it is wrong not to be willing to live, and suffer too, if it be +God's will," said his sister, earnestly. "And what would _we_ do if you +were to die, Archie, my mother and me?" + +"I am sure you could do far better than you can do now. You wouldn't +need to bide here longer. You could go to Glen Elder to Aunt Janet, you +and my mother. But I'll never see Glen Elder, nor Aunt Janet, nor +anything but these dark walls and yon bit of the kirk-yard." + +"Whisht, Archie," said his sister, soothingly. "Aunt Janet has gone +from Glen Elder, and she's maybe as ill off as any of us. I doubt none +of us will ever go there again. But we won't think of such sad things +now. Lie still, and I'll sing to you till my mother comes home." + +She drew a low stool to the side of the bed, and, laying her head down +on the pillow beside him, she sang, in a voice low and soft but clear as +a skylark's, the sweetest of all the sweet Psalmist's holy songs. It +must have been a weary day for her too. She got through the first two +verses well; but as she began, "Yea, though I walk through death's dark +vale," her eyes closed, and her voice died away into a murmur, and then +ceased. Her brother lay quite still, too; nor did either of them move +when the traveller went forward into the room. + +Many sad and some bitter thoughts were in her heart, as she stood gazing +upon them in the deepening twilight. She thought of the time when her +only brother, many years younger than herself, had been committed to her +care by her dying mother. She thought of the love they had borne each +other in the years that followed; how the boy had come to her for +sympathy in his childish joys and sorrows; how he had sought her +counsel, and guided himself by it, in riper years. She recalled with +sadness the untoward events which had interfered to separate him from +her and from his early home as he advanced to manhood. Things had not +gone well with him in the last years of his life, and he sank under a +burden of care too heavy to be borne by one of his sensitive nature. +Now he was dead, and she grieved to think that she, his sister, in her +old age of poverty, could not offer a home to his widow and orphan +children. + +The youth and middle age of Mrs Blair had been more free from trial +than is the common lot; but the last few years had been years of great +vicissitude. She was now a widow and childless; for though it might be +that her youngest son was still alive, she did not know that he was; and +his life had been the cause of more sorrow than the death of all her +other children had been. + +She had been involved in the pecuniary troubles that had borne so +heavily upon her brother, and when old age was drawing near she found +herself under the necessity of leaving Glen Elder, the home where her +life had been passed, to seek a humbler shelter. Since then she had +lived content with humble means, as far as she herself was concerned, +but anxious often for the sake of those whom she loved and longed to +befriend. She had known they must be poor, but she had not heard of +their poverty from themselves. They resided in a remote and thinly +peopled district in Scotland, where the means of communication were few +and difficult. Nothing but vague reports had reached her. She had +hoped against hope till the time came when she could set her fears at +rest, or know the worst, by seeing them herself. Now, standing in the +bare room, in the midst of many marks of want and sickness, it grieved +her bitterly to feel how little she could do to help them. + +"God help them!" she said aloud; and her voice awoke the sleeper before +her. For an instant the startled girl stood gazing at the stranger; +then, advancing timidly, she held out both hands, exclaiming: + +"Aunt Janet!" + +"Yes, it is Aunt Janet," said Mrs Blair, clasping her in her arms; "if +indeed this can be the little Lily I used to like so well to see at Glen +Elder. You are taller than my little lassie was," she added, bending +back the fair little face and kissing it fondly. "But this is my wee +Lily's face; I should know it anywhere." + +"Oh, Aunt Janet," cried the child, bursting into tears; "I am so glad +you are come! We have needed you so much!" + +Mrs Blair sat down on the bed, still holding the child in her arms. +Poor Lilias! Tears must have been long kept back, her aunt thought, for +she seemed to have no power to check her sobs, now that they had found +way. Half chiding, half soothing her with tender words, she held her +firmly till she grew calm again. + +In a little while the weary child raised herself up, and said: + +"Don't be vexed with me, Aunt Janet. I don't often cry like that; but I +am so glad you have come. We have needed you sorely; and I was sure you +would come, if you only knew." + +Mrs Blair would not grieve her by telling her how little she could do +for them now that she had come; but she still held her in her arms, as +she bent down to kiss the little lad, who was gazing, half in wonder, +half in fear, at the sight of his sister's tears; and as she got a +better view of his thin pale face, she resolved that, if it were +possible, he at least should be removed from the close, unhealthy +atmosphere of his present home. + +"You must be weary, aunt," said Lilias, at last, withdrawing herself +from her arms, and untying the strings of her bonnet, which had not yet +been removed. "Come and rest here in the armchair till mother comes +home. Oh, she will be so glad!" + +Mrs Blair suffered herself to be led to the chair which had been her +mother's; and, as she rested in it, she watched with much interest the +movements of the little girl. In a few minutes there was a fire on the +hearth, and warm water prepared, and then, kneeling down, she bathed the +hands and face and weary feet of her aunt. Mrs Blair felt a strange +sweet pleasure in thus being waited on by the child. Many months had +passed since she had looked on one united to her by the ties of blood; +and now her heart was full as she gazed on the children of her brother. +There was something inexpressibly grateful to her in the look of content +that was coming into the grave, wistful eyes of the little lad, and in +the caressing touch of Lily's hand. In the interest with which she +watched the little girl as she went about intent on household cares, she +well-nigh forgot her own weariness and her many causes of anxiety. +There was something so womanly, yet so childish, in her quiet ways, +something so winning in the grave smile that now and then played about +her mouth, that her aunt was quite beguiled from her sad thoughts. In a +little while Lily went to the door, and listened for her mother's +returning footsteps. + +"I wonder what can be keeping her so late?" she said, as she returned. +"This is not a busy time, and she said that she would be early home. +Sometimes she is very late on Saturday night." + +Once more she went to the head of the stairs to listen; and then, +returning, she sat herself on a stool at her aunt's feet. + +"And so you are very glad to see me, Lily?" said Mrs Blair, smiling +upon the child's upturned face. + +The bright smile with which the girl answered faded quickly as her aunt +continued: + +"And you are very poor now, are you?" + +"Yes, we are poor; and, yet, not so very poor, either. We have had some +work to do, my mother and I; and we have never been a whole day without +food. If Archie were only well again! That's our worst trouble, now. +And mother, too, though she won't own to being ill, often gets very +weary. But now that you are come, all will be well again." + +"And maybe you'll take us all home to Glen Elder for a wee while, as you +used to do," said Archie, speaking for the first time since his aunt's +coming. + +"Archie so pines for the country," said Lilias; "and we can hardly make +ourselves believe that you live anywhere but at Glen Elder." + +"My home now is very unlike Glen Elder," said Mrs Blair, sadly. "But +there is fresh air there, and there are bonny heather hills; so cheer +up, Archie, laddie; it will go hard with me if I canna get you to +Kirklands for a while at least, and you'll be strong and well before +winter yet." + +The boy smiled sadly enough, and the tears started in his eyes; but he +did not answer. + +"Archie is thinking that, maybe, he'll never be well again," said his +sister. "The doctor says he may be a cripple all his life." + +This was a new and unexpected sorrow to Mrs Blair; and her countenance +expressed the dismay she felt, as she questioned them about it. + +"It was the fever. Archie was ill with the fever all the winter; and +when the spring came he didn't get strong again, as we had hoped, and +the disease settled in his knee. The doctor said if he could have got +away into the country he might have grown strong again. And maybe it's +not too late yet," added the little girl, eagerly. "I'm sure the very +sight of the hills, these bonny summer days, might make one strong and +well." + +"Well, he'll get a sight of the hills before very long, I trust; and I +don't despair of seeing him strong and well yet," said Mrs Blair, +hopefully; and the children, reassured by her cheerful words, smiled +brightly to each other, as they thought of the happy days in store for +them. + +Death had visited the homes of both since Mrs Blair and her +sister-in-law met last, and to both the meeting was a sad one. Lilias' +mother was scarcely more calm than Lilias had been, as she threw herself +into the arms of her long-tried friend. Her words of welcome were few; +but the earnest tearful gaze that she fixed upon her sister's face told +all that her quivering lips refused to utter. + +When the first excitement of their meeting was over, Mrs Blair was +shocked to observe the change which grief and care had made in her +sister's face and form. She looked many years older than when she had +last seen her. There was not a trace of colour on her cheek or lip, and +her whole appearance indicated extreme weariness and languor. Little +was said of the exertions and privations of the last few months; but +that these must have been severe and many was to Mrs Blair only too +evident. The food placed upon the table was of the simplest and +cheapest kind, and of a quality little calculated to tempt the appetite +of an invalid; and she noticed with pain that it was scarcely tasted +either by the sick boy or his mother. + +"You are not well to-night, mother," said Lilias, looking anxiously at +her as she put aside the untasted food. + +"Yes, dear, I am as well as usual; but I am tired. The night is close +and sultry, and the walk has tired me more than usual. I have not hard +work now," she added, turning to Mrs Blair. "This is not a busy time, +and my employer is very considerate; but her place of business is quite +at the other end of the town, and it's not so easy walking two or three +miles on the pavements as it used to be among the hills at home." + +"I fear you carry a heavier heart than you used to do in those days," +said Mrs Blair, sadly. "But are you not trying your strength more than +you ought with these long walks?" + +Mrs Elder might have replied that she had no choice between these long +walks and utter destitution for herself and her children; but she said, +cheerfully, that it was only since the weather had become so warm that +she had found the walk at all beyond her strength, and the hot weather +would soon be over now. + +"It's the country air mother wants, as well as me," said Archie; and the +gaze which the weary mother turned upon her sister was as full of +wistful longing as the little lad's had been. After a little pause, she +said: + +"Sometimes I think it would be great happiness to get away to some quiet +country place, where I might earn enough to support myself and them. +The din and dust of this noisy town are almost too much for me, +sometimes; and I am not so strong as I once was. I think it would give +me new life to breathe the air of the hills again. But if such is not +God's will, we must even be content to bide here till the end comes." +And she sighed heavily. + +"Whisht, Ellen, woman," said her sister; "don't speak in such a hopeless +voice as that. Whatever comes, God sends; and what He sends to His own +He sends in love, not in anger. He has not left you to doubt that, +surely?" + +"Oh, no; I am sure of that. I have seen that it has been in love that +He has dealt with us hitherto." And in a moment she added, a bright +smile lighting up her pale face as she spoke: + +"And I think I can count on a place prepared for me at last by my +Saviour; but, for my children's sakes, I would like to wait a while. I +would like to take them with me when I go." + +"It may be that one of them will get there before you," said her sister. +"He knows best, and will send what is best for His own." + +"Yes, I know it," said Mrs Elder, in a startled voice, as she turned to +look at the pale face of her boy, now almost death-like in the quietness +of sleep. The silence was long and tearful; and then she added, as if +unconscious of the presence of another: + +"So that we are all guided safely to His rest at last, it matters little +though the way be rough. `I will trust, and not be afraid.'" + +Long after the tired children slept, the sisters sat conversing about +many things. Not about the future. Firm as was their trust in God, the +future seemed dark indeed, and each shrank from paining the other by +speaking her fears aloud. Of her husband Mrs Elder spoke with +thankfulness and joy, though with many tears. He had known and loved +the Saviour, and had died rejoicing in His salvation. She had prayed +that God would give her submission to His will as the end drew near;-- +and He had given her not only submission, but blessed peace; and no +trouble, however heavy, should make her distrust His love again. + +Had her husband been cut off in the midst of his days, without warning, +she must have believed that it was well with him now. But, in the +memory of the time before his death, the blessedness of his present +state seemed less a matter of faith than of sure and certain knowledge. +There could be no gloom, either in the past or the future, so thick but +the light of that blessed assurance might penetrate it. In the darkest +hours that had fallen on her since then (and some hours had been dark +indeed), it had cheered and comforted her to think of the last months of +his life. It was, in truth, the long abiding in the land of Beulah, the +valley and the shadow of death long past, and the towers and gates of +the celestial city full in sight. + +"No; whatever may come upon us now," she added humbly, "nothing can take +away the knowledge that it is well with him." + +Through the whole of the long history, given with many tears, Mrs Elder +never spoke of the poverty that had fallen upon them, or of her own +ill-remunerated toil. His last days had been days of comfort, +undisturbed by any apprehension with regard to the future of his wife +and children; for the stroke which deprived them of the last remnant of +their means did not fall till he was at rest. + +The candle had long since sunk in the socket, and they were sitting in +the darkness, which the moonlight, streaming in through the small attic +window, only partially dispelled. Not a sound but the soft breathing of +the sleeping children, and the hum of voices from the city below, broke +the stillness of the pause which followed. Each was busy with her own +thoughts. The prevailing feeling in Mrs Blair's heart was gratitude, +both for her dead brother and her living sister's sake. That his last +days had been days of such peace and comfort, that his trust in Christ +had been so firm, and his hope of happiness so sure, was matter for +fervent thanksgiving. Nor were the humble resignation and patient faith +of his wife less a cause of rejoicing to her. She felt rebuked for her +own fears and faithlessness as the narrative went on, and she thanked +God for the love that had been so mercifully mingled in the bitter cup +that had been given them to drink. + +Long after her sister was sleeping by her side did Mrs Blair lie awake, +revolving in her mind some possible plan for finding a home for the +widow and her children in the country, for that none of them could long +endure such a life as they had lately been living was only too evident. + +It seemed to her that she had never felt her poverty till now. Bitterly +did she regret her inability to help them. From the abundance that had +blessed her youth and middle age a mere pittance had been saved, +scarcely enough to maintain herself, and altogether insufficient to +enable her to gratify her benevolent feelings by doing for them as she +wished. She had removed from her early home to a little hamlet among +the hills, and had taken up her abode in a cottage scarcely better than +a mountain shieling; and there the last few years had been passed. She +had opened a school for the children of the cottagers, happy in being +useful in this way to those whom she could now assist in no other. + +To this home, poor as it was, she longed to take the widow and children +of her brother. Many a plan she considered for eking out her scanty +means that she might do so; and the grey dawn was beginning to break +before she closed her eyes in sleep. The future was still dark before +her. She saw no way to bring about what she so earnestly desired. +There was nothing to do but leave it all in the Hand which is strong to +help in time of need. And what better could she do than cling to the +promise which God has given? + +"God of the widow! Father of the fatherless! interpose for them," she +prayed. And her prayer was heard and answered. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +HOW AUNT JANET'S PRAYER WAS ANSWERED. + +Yes: her prayer was heard and answered; but it was in God's way, not in +hers. When Mrs Blair woke from her short and unrefreshing slumber, she +found that the morning was far advanced. Lilias had been long astir. +Breakfast was ready; and the child was now standing beside her mother, +assisting her to dress. But the effort to sit up seemed too much for +Mrs Elder. + +"It's no use trying, Lilias, my dear," she said, at last, laying her +aching head back on the pillow again. "I'm either too ill or too weary +to rise. Thank God, it is the day of rest. I shall be better +to-morrow." + +But this was not to be. Through all that long day she lay, tossing in +restless wakefulness or moaning in feverish slumber. Mrs Blair, too, +worn out by her long journey and her sleepless night, seemed unable to +make the slightest exertion. Lilias went from one to the other, +ministering to their wants; and her loving voice and gentle touch +brought comfort to their hearts, though she could not soothe their +bodily pain. + +"You are a kind little nurse, Lilias," said her aunt, detaining the hand +that had been laid lovingly on her. "I am sure you have the will to +help us, if you only had the power." + +"Oh, I wish I could do something for you, aunt! I am afraid you are +very weary. Maybe if I were to read a little to you, the time wouldn't +seem so long," And she laid her hand on her own little Bible as she +spoke. + +"Yes, love, read: I shall be very glad to listen." + +So she read, in her clear, childish voice, psalm after psalm, till her +aunt could not but wonder at the skill with which she seemed to choose +those most suitable to their circumstances. By-and-by, after a little +pause, she said: + +"Some way, I like the Psalms, aunt. Do you not like them? They seem to +say what we want to say so much better than we can ourselves." + +"Yes, my child; that is true. And so you like the Psalms best, do you?" +said her aunt. + +"Not _best_,--at least, not always;--only when I am weary or sad. There +are some chapters in the New Testament that I like best of all. This is +Archie's chapter." And she turned to the fifteenth of Luke. "Archie +thinks it is grand, this about the joy among the angels in heaven; and +this, too, about the Father's love;" and she read, "`But when the father +saw him, he had compassion upon him, and ran, and fell on his neck, and +kissed him.'" + +"Archie never tires of that," she said, smiling at her brother, who had +been sitting with his eyes fixed upon her, listening as she read. "And +this is the one I like best, about Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus." And +she read the eleventh chapter of John, but paused before she got to the +end. + +"I never like to read the rest, about their taking counsel to slay Him, +so soon after they had seen all this. Sometimes I can hardly make it +seem true, it is so sad. But I like the story, oh, so much!" And she +read again slowly, "`Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and +Lazarus.'" And again, "`Jesus said unto her, I am the Resurrection, and +the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he +live: and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.'" + +"Do you like it, aunt?" + +"Yes, love; it is a fine chapter." + +"It's maybe not better than many and many a one here," said Lilias, +slowly turning over the leaves of her Bible; "but I happened on it once +when I needed something to help me, and I've liked it ever since." + +"And what time was that?" asked her aunt, much interested. + +"Oh, it was long ago," answered Lilias, lowering her voice, and looking +to see if her mother still slept. "It was just after father died. +Mother was ill, and I thought God was sending us too much trouble; and I +came upon this chapter, and it did me so much good! Not that I thought +Jesus would raise up my father again, but I knew He could do greater +things than that if He pleased; and I knew He had not forgotten us in +our troubles, more than He had forgotten Mary and Martha, though He +stayed still in the same place where He was, two whole days after they +had sent for Him because their brother was sick. No trouble has seemed +so bad since then; and none ever will again, come what may." + +"Come what may!" Little was Lilias thinking of all that might be hidden +in those words. She gradually came to know, as that night and the next +day and night passed away, and the dawning of the third day found her +mother no better, but rather worse. Mrs Blair had concealed her own +anxiety, for the children's sake. Believing her sister's illness to be +the consequence of over-exertion, she had thought that rest and quiet +would be sufficient to restore her; but these three days had made no +change for the better, and, fearing the worst, she asked Lilias if she +knew any doctor to whom they might apply. + +"Yes; there is Dr Gordon, who attended my father and Archie. We have +not seen him for a long time, but I think I could find his house." And, +with trembling eagerness, she prepared to go out. + +It rained violently, but Lilias scarcely knew it, as she ran rather than +walked along the street. It was still early, and the doctor had not +gone out. When the servant carried in the little girl's message, he +repeated the name several times, as if to recall it. + +"Mrs Elder!--I had lost sight of her this long time. Yes, certainly I +will go. Where does she live now?" + +The servant replied that the child who brought the message was waiting +to show him the way; and in a few minutes he was ready to go with her. +Lilias, who was standing at the door, started homeward as soon as he +appeared, and hurried on almost as rapidly as she came, so that the +doctor had some difficulty in keeping her in sight. + +"Are you sure you are not mistaking the way?" said he, as Lilias waited +for him at the corner of the street, or rather the alley that led to the +attic; "surely Mrs Elder cannot be living in a place like this?" + +Lilias threw back her bonnet, and now, for the first time, looked in the +doctor's face. "Yes, sir, we have lived here ever since the time you +used to come and see Archie." + +"Oh, he! my Lily of the valley, this is you, is it? Well, don't cry," +he added; for his kindly voice had brought the tears to the child's +eyes. "We shall have your mother quite well in a day or two again, +never fear." + +But he looked grave indeed as he stood beside her, and took her burning +hand in his. + +"You don't think my mother will be long ill?" said Lilias, looking up +anxiously into his face as he stood beside the bed. + +"No, my child; I don't think she will be long ill," said he, gravely. + +And Lilias, reassured by his words, and fearing no evil, smiled almost +brightly again, as she went quietly about her household work. + +"You think her dying, then?" said Mrs Blair, to whom his words conveyed +a far different meaning. + +"She is not dying yet; but, should her present symptoms continue long, +she cannot possibly survive. She must have been exerting herself far +beyond her strength or living long without nourishing food, to have +become reduced to a state so frightfully low as that in which I find +her." + +"She has been doing both, I fear," said her sister, sadly. "She has +sacrificed herself. And, yet, what could she do? They have had nothing +for many months between them and want, but the labour of her hands, and +the few pence that poor child could earn. God help them!" + +"God help them, indeed!" echoed the doctor earnestly. + +He gave her what hope he could. He said it was possible, only just +possible, that she might rally. It would depend on the strength of her +constitution. Nothing that he could do for her would be left undone. + +"In the mean time, we must hope for the best." + +But, with so much cause to fear, it was no easy thing to hope; and to +Mrs Blair the day was a long and anxious one. Her sister seemed +conscious at intervals; but for the greater part of the time she lay +quite still, giving no evidence of life, save by her quick and laboured +breathing. When Dr Gordon came again at night there was no change for +the better; and, though he did not say so, it was evident to Mrs Blair +that he anticipated the worst. + +"And must she die without recovering consciousness? Can she speak no +word to her children before she goes?" + +"It is possible she may die without speaking again. But if she revives +so much as to speak, it will be very near the end." + +Lilias had gone out on an errand, so that she did not see the doctor; +and her aunt's heart grew sick at the thought of telling her that her +mother must so soon die. Archie evidently had some idea of his mother's +state; for, though he did not speak, he gazed anxiously into his aunt's +face as she turned away from the bed. + +"Poor boy! Poor, helpless child!" she murmured, stooping suddenly over +him. Poor boy, indeed! He knew it all now. He asked no questions. He +needed to ask none; but he hid his face in the pillow, and sobbed as if +his heart would break. At length Lilias' footstep was heard on the +stair, and he hushed his sobs to listen. She came up step by step, +slowly and wearily; for the watching and anxiety of the last few days +and nights were beginning to tell upon her. + +"Well, aunt?" she said, laying down the burden she had brought up, and +looking hopefully into her aunt's face. Mrs Blair could not speak for +a moment; and Lilias, startled by her grave looks, exclaimed: + +"Does Dr Gordon think my mother worse?" + +"She is not much better, I fear, love," said her aunt, drawing her +towards her, and holding her hands firmly in her own. Lilias gave a +fearful glance into her face. The truth flashed upon her; but she put +it from her in terror. + +"We must have patience, aunt. She has had no time to grow better yet." + +"Yes, love; we must have patience. Whatever God shall see fit to send +on us, we must not distrust Him, Lilias." + +"Yes, we must have patience," said the child, scarcely knowing what she +said. She went and knelt down beside the bed, and spoke to her mother; +but her voice had no power to rouse her from the heavy slumber into +which she had fallen. In a little while she rose, and went quietly +about arranging the things in the room. Then, with needless care, the +supper was placed on the table; for none of them could taste food. Then +her brother was prepared for bed; but all the time she spoke no word, +and went about like one in a dream. + +When she stooped to kiss her brother a good-night, the little boy +clasped his arms about her neck, and wept aloud. But she did not weep; +she laid her head down on the pillow beside him, gently soothing him +with hand and voice; and, when at last he had sobbed himself to sleep, +she disengaged his arms from her neck, and, rising, placed herself on a +low stool beside her mother's bed. + +Mrs Blair thought it better to leave her to herself. Indeed, what +could she say to comfort her? And so the child sat a long time gazing +into her mother's face, her own giving no sign of the struggle that was +going on within. At first the one thought that filled her mind was that +it was impossible her mother could be going to die. It seemed too +dreadful to be true; and, then, it was so sudden! Her father had been +with them for months after they knew that he must die, and her mother +had been quite well only three days ago. No; it could not be! + +And, yet, such things had been before. She thought of a little girl, +rosy and strong, who had sickened and died in three short days; and it +might be so with her mother. How should she ever live without her? Oh, +if she could only die too, and have done with life and its struggles! +Everything was forgotten in the misery of the moment; and with a moan +that revealed to her aunt something of what she was suffering, she +leaned forward on the bed. + +"Lily," said a voice beside her. + +Lilias started. It was the first time her mother had spoken during the +day, and the child bent eagerly over her and kissed her. + +"Lily, love, read to me the twelfth of Hebrews," said her mother, in a +low, changed voice. + +By a strong effort Lilias quieted herself, and read on till she came to +the eleventh verse: "`Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be +joyous, but grievous; but afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of +righteousness to them that are exercised thereby.'" + +"You believe that, Lily?" said her mother. + +"Yes, mother," said the child, in a trembling voice. + +"And you'll mind it by-and-by, darling, and comfort your brother with +the words? It won't be for long, Lily. You'll soon be with us there." + +"Mother! mother!" gasped the child, losing her self-control, as she +threw herself upon the bed and clasped her arms about her mother's neck. +For a few minutes her frame shook with her sobs. Fearing the effect of +this strong emotion on the mother, Mrs Blair came to the bed; but she +did not speak, and by a strong effort she calmed herself again. + +"Lily," said her mother, in a moment or two, "I have many things to say +to you, and I have not much strength left. You must calm yourself, +darling, and listen to me." + +"But, mother, you are not much worse to-night, are you?" + +"God is very good to us both, my child, in giving me a little strength +and a clear mind at the last. What I have to say will comfort you +afterwards, Lily. I want to tell my darling what a comfort she has been +to me through all my time of trouble. I have thanked God for my +precious daughter many a time when I was ready to sink. Archie will +never want a mother's care while he has you; and for his sake, love, you +must not grieve too much for me. It will only be for a little while; +and, then, think how happy we shall be." + +There was a pause. + +"Will you promise, Lily?" + +"Yes, mother; I promise. It will only be for a little while." + +"I do not fear to leave my darlings. God will keep them safe till we +meet again." + +There was a long silence after that; and then she called her sister by +name, and Mrs Blair bent over her. + +"Kiss me, Janet. God sent you to us now. Comfort--Alex's bairns." + +Again there was silence. The mother's hand moved uneasily, as if in +search of something. Her sister lifted it, and laid it over her +daughter's neck, and then it was at rest. Not a sound broke the +stillness of the hour. They thought she slept; and she did sleep; but +she never woke again. The early dawn showed the change that had passed +over her face, and Lilias knew that she was motherless. + +Of how the next days passed, Lilias never had a distinct remembrance. +She only knew that when, on the third morning, strangers came to bear +her mother away, it seemed a long, long time since she died. It seemed +like looking back over years, rather than days, to recall the time when +she lay with her arms clasped around her neck, and listened to her dying +words. + +During this time, Mrs Blair had watched her niece with some anxiety. +There was no violent bursts of grief, but there was a look of desolation +on her face which it was heartbreaking to see. She was quiet and gentle +through all; willing, indeed eager, to render assistance to her aunt +when it was required; but as soon as she was free again she returned to +the low stool beside the bed on which her mother lay. + +The time was passed by Archie in alternate fits of violent weeping and +depression almost amounting to stupor. Lilias tried hard to perform the +promise made to her dying mother. She put aside her own sorrow to +soothe his. She read to him; she sang to him; and when he would listen +to neither reading nor singing, she would murmur such words of comfort +as her mother had spoken to her; and their burden always was, "They are +so happy now. They have found such rest and peace; and it will be but a +little while, and then we shall be with them there." + +And then, when he grew quiet and listened to her, she would try to meet +his wistful looks with a smile; but when he was quiet or asleep, she +always returned to the place beside her dead mother. + +But they bore her mother away at last; and then for a moment Lilias' +strength and courage forsook her. The cry of her desolate heart would +no longer be hushed. + +"Oh, mother! mother!" + +Even the sound of her brother's weeping had not power, for a time, to +recall her from the indulgence of her grief. + +On the morning of her sister's death, Mrs Blair had written to a +friend, asking him to make arrangements for conveying the orphans to her +humble home; and they were to leave the town on the day succeeding that +of the funeral. Little was left to be done. A few articles of +furniture were to be disposed of, a few trifles, heirlooms in the family +for several generations, were to be taken with them; and it was with a +feeling of relief that Mrs Blair welcomed the honest carrier of +Kirklands who was on the morrow to convey them away from the unhealthy +town to the free fresh air of their native hills. Only one thing more +remained to be done, and the afternoon was nearly over before Mrs Blair +found courage to speak of it. + +"Lilias, if you are not too weary, I should like you to go out for me to +Dr Gordon's, love, if it will not be too much for you." + +"I'm not weary, aunt. I'll go, if you wish." But she grew very pale, +remembering the last time she had gone there. + +"Lilias," said her aunt, drawing her towards her, and kissing her +fondly, "you have been my own brave, patient lassie to-day. You have +not forgotten your mother's words?" + +"Oh, aunt, I wish to be patient, indeed I do. But I fear I am not +really patient at heart." And she wept now as though her heart would +break. + +Her aunt let her weep freely for a few minutes, and then she said: + +"It's not wrong for you to weep for your mother, Lilias; you must do +that. But you know `He doth not afflict willingly;' and you can trust +His love, though you cannot see why this great sorrow has been sent upon +you. You can say, `Thy will, not mine, be done.'" + +"I am trying, Aunt Janet," said Lilias, looking up with a wavering smile +on her lips, almost sadder to see than tears, as her aunt could not help +thinking. She said no more, but kissed her and let her go. + +It was with a grave face and slow step that Lilias took her way to Dr +Gordon's house. When she was fairly in the street, a wild desire seized +her to go to the place where her father and mother lay, and she took a +few rapid steps in that direction. It was not in the narrow kirk-yard +seen from their window, but quite away in another part of the town, +nearer to the place where they used to live, and Lilias paused before +she had gone far, for she doubted if it would be right to venture down +at that hour. She stood still a moment. + +"I shall not see them. They are not there. I must have patience." And +she turned slowly back again. + +It was growing dark in the room in which, for a few minutes, she waited +for Dr Gordon, and through the half-open door she caught a glimpse of a +pleasant parlour, echoing with the music of voices. Happy, cheerful +voices they were; but Lilias's heart grew sadder as she listened, and +when at last Dr Gordon appeared, it was with difficulty that she could +restrain her tears. + +Speaking very fast, as if she were afraid that her voice would fail her, +she said: "We are going away, sir, to-morrow with my aunt, Mrs Blair, +and she sent me with this to you." + +The doctor took what the child held towards him, but instantly replaced +it in her hands. + +"And so that was your aunt I saw the other day?" said he. + +"Yes; Aunt Janet Blair, our father's sister. We are going to live with +her in the country, and it's far away; and, if you please, sir, would +you come and see Archie again? My aunt didn't bid me ask you, but it +would be such a comfort if you would." And she looked up beseechingly +into his face. + +"Yes, surely, with a good will," said Dr Gordon heartily; "and +to-night, too, it must be, if you are going to-morrow. No, no, my +lassie," he added, as Lilias made another attempt to place the money in +his hand. "I have not yet eaten orphans' bread, and I'm not going to +begin now." + +"But my aunt sent it, sir; and she was not always poor; and I think she +would like you to take it." + +His only answer was to press her fingers more closely over the little +packet of money, as he drew her towards the parlour-door. + +"I will go with you by-and-by, but first you must come in and see my +boys. Mrs Gordon wants to see you, too," said he. + +The room into which they passed was a large and pleasant one, and Lilias +never forgot it, nor the kind words which were spoken to her there. The +bright yet softened light of a lamp made all parts of it visible. Over +the mantelpiece was a large mirror, and there were heavy crimson +curtains on the windows, and many pictures on the walls. On a low +chair, near the fire, sat a lady with a boy in her arms, and several +other children were playing about the room. They became quiet as their +father entered, and gazed with some curiosity on the stranger. + +"This is my little friend, Lilias Elder," said the doctor. "It is +fortunate she came to-night. We might not have found her to-morrow." + +Mrs Gordon received Lilias very kindly, speaking to her in a voice so +tender, that, in spite of herself, it brought the tears to her eyes. +Noticing her emotion, Mrs Gordon did not speak to her again for a +moment, and the children gathering round her, she quickly recovered +herself in receiving and returning their greetings. + +When tea was fairly over, and the boys had gone to bed, a long +conversation took place between Lilias and her friends. Dr Gordon was +the father of six sons, but he had no daughter, and his heart overflowed +with love and pity for the orphan girl. Through all the long illness of +her father and brother, she had been an object of interest to the kind +physician. Her never-wearying attention to both, and the evident +comfort and support she had been to her mother in all her trials, had +filled him with admiration and pleasure. For months he had lost sight +of the family, and various circumstances had occurred to withdraw his +thoughts from the subject; but now that he had found Lilias an orphan +and in want, he longed to take her to his heart and home. + +"I ought, perhaps, to have spoken first to your aunt, your natural +guardian; but I think she will be willing to give you up to us. We will +try and make you happy, my child." + +Lilias shed many grateful tears as their plans were unfolded to her; but +to all their kind words she had but one answer. It could not be. She +could never leave Archie. He was ill and lame, and had no one else, and +she had promised her mother always to take care of him. + +It was in vain that they assured her that his health and comfort should +be cared for; that, though for the present they might be separated, he +would still be her brother, and that her change of circumstances would +be, as beneficial to him as to her in the end. They urged her to +consider, and not to decide hastily. They would wait, weeks or months, +till her brother was better, so that she could leave him with her aunt. + +But no. It could not be. It would seem like forsaking him. She had +promised their mother always to take care of him. Nothing could make it +right to break that promise. + +"Indeed you must not be grieved, or think me ungrateful," she pleaded. +"It would not be right. It would break Archie's heart to part from me +now." + +And so they let her go. Dr Gordon did not speak to her, but he held +her hand firmly as they passed down the street. Lilias thought he was +angry at her decision; but he was not angry. He was only grieved. When +they reached the door, she lingered. + +"Indeed, sir, I could not do any other way; and, if you please, don't +tell my aunt all you have said to me to-night: she might think I would +be sorry afterwards, and I wish you wouldn't tell her." + +"Well, child, I will not tell her, since it is your wish. But remember, +if any trouble comes upon you, you must write and let me know." And +Lilias joyfully assented to the condition. + +The doctor's visit comforted them all greatly. Archie's case he thought +by no means so hopeless as he had once thought it. True, he might still +be lame; but he might be strong and healthy for all that. The fresh air +of the hills would, he believed, work wonders for him: so he bade him +take heart; and the poor lad's pale face brightened as he said it. + +To Mrs Blair he spoke of her brother in terms of respect and affection +that won her confidence at once; and when he earnestly entreated her to +consider him as a friend to the children, and to apply to him if trouble +should overtake them, she promised to do so, without hesitation or +reserve. + +When he bade "good-bye" to Lilias, he took her face between his hands +and kissed her many times on lip and brow, calling her a firm little +thing, though she seemed so gentle; and then he prayed, "God bless her," +and they were left alone. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +THE NEW HOME. + +It was not without many tears that the two children bade farewell to the +little, dark room that had been their home so long. True, they had +suffered much in it. Many long, restless days and painful nights had +Archie passed there; but it was associated with the memory of their +mother, and it was like a second parting from her to leave it. + +The morning was dark and dull. A heavy mist lay on the town, and for +the first few miles their journey was silent and sad. But, as the sun +rose higher, the clouds parted and the mist rolled away, revealing to +the unaccustomed eyes of the children pleasant glimpses of hill and +valley. + +Their way, after they had fairly left the great city and its suburbs +behind them, lay through quiet and unfrequented roads. They crossed a +broad moor, and then for a time passed between low hills covered with +broom or heather. Afterwards they came upon cultivated land lying +around long, low farm-houses. Sometimes these dwellings were close by +the road, and then they caught, with delight, glimpses of barn-door +fowls and garden-flowers; and sometimes there were children playing on +the green slopes around their homes. But oftener the farm-houses were +far away on the hill-sides or in the quiet valleys. In some early +fields they saw the reapers busy with the harvest; but most of the way +was quiet,--even lonely. For miles and miles they saw no living thing +save a grey plover whistling over their heads, or now and then a flock +of sheep among the hills far away. + +Much of the way Mrs Blair walked, and sometimes Lilias walked with her; +but she soon became weary. It was a day long to be remembered by the +children,--their first day among the hills. After so long in the close +streets of the town, it seemed as though they could never get enough of +the clear, fresh air and the pleasant country sights and sounds. +Everything seemed beautiful to them, moors, and hills, and golden +harvest-fields. They did not talk much, only now and then one would +point out to the other some new object of interest, a glimpse of blue +water caught between the hills, or a lark upspringing from some grassy +knoll, singing as it soared. + +In the middle of the day they stopped near a little village to rest. +The carrier went with his horse to the inn; but they sat down in the +shadow of a tree by the wayside, and ate the simple food they had +brought with them. + +It was sunset before they reached their aunt's home; and a pleasant +place it seemed to them, though so poor and small. It stood at a little +distance from the village of Kirklands. On one side was a plot of +garden-ground, which some former occupant of the cottage had redeemed +from the common beyond. It was sheltered on two sides by a hawthorn +hedge; and a low, whitewashed paling separated it from the highway. +There was little in it, except a few common vegetables, a border of +daisies and hearts-ease, and a rose-bush or two; but to Lilias it seemed +a charming place; and it was not without reluctance that she obeyed her +aunt's summons to come within when the dew began to fall. + +It was, indeed, a new life that the brother and sister began at the +cottage. During the first few weeks, the greater part of the time, when +the days were fine, was passed out-of-doors. At first, Archie could not +get beyond the turf seat at the end of the cottage; but Lilias found her +way across the wide common and away to the hills and glens beyond. +After a time, Archie was able, by the help of his crutches, to go with +her; and many a pleasant path and quiet resting-place they found for +themselves. + +Their favourite resort was at the most distant point to which Archie for +a while was able to go. A great grey rock, partly covered with heather +and wild creepers, jutted out into the dry bed of a mountain stream. +Passing round it, they found a low seat made by an abrupt rent in the +rock, over which hung a slender mountain-ash. In the winter, or after +heavy rains, this channel was filled with water; but now a tiny rivulet +only trickled down the middle of the bed, making a pleasant murmur among +the smooth, white pebbles over which it passed. Here the children spent +many a happy hour. + +Their most common theme of conversation was their father and mother, and +the events of the past two years. The memory of the time before that +was more like a dream than like the recalling of events that had really +taken place. Of their mother they spoke oftenest,--sometimes with tears +and regret for their own loss, but sometimes, too, with joy at the +thought of her gain, and the blessed rest to which she had attained. + +"Do you think she was glad to go?" asked Archie, one day, after they had +been talking a long time. + +"Yes; I think she was very glad to go; but at first it grieved her +sorely to think of leaving us behind. I almost think she would have +gone sooner but for that. After Aunt Janet came, it was different. +After that she seemed willing to go at any time." + +There was a pause, and then Archie said: + +"It is a pity that she didn't know, before she went away, how we should +come here, and what a bonny place it is. Lily, do you think she sees us +now?" + +"I don't know. She may. Anyway, after that night she was willing to +leave us. Indeed, she told me the night she died that she didn't fear +for us." + +The remembrance of that night always made Lilias' cheek grow pale; and +she did not speak again for some time. At last she said: + +"Yes, this is a bonny place, and we have been very happy here; but there +is one thing I am grieved for. You know, Archie, Aunt Janet is poor, +and I fear in this place I shall not be able to find anything to do to +help her. I fear I can't bide here long." + +The thought of having to part from his sister had never come into +Archie's mind, and he looked at her in astonishment, as he said: + +"But where would you go?" + +"Oh, I don't know yet. Only I think it's not right to burden Aunt Janet +more than can be helped. I heard Mrs Stirling say that Mrs Graham, at +the manse, wanted some one to sew and help among the children; and maybe +I would do for her." + +"Oh, Lily, surely you wouldn't go away. What should I ever do without +you?" said Archie, weeping. + +"Whisht, Archie," said his sister, soothingly; "do you think I would +like to go away from you? But if it is right, we mustn't think whether +it is pleasant or not. We won't grieve before the time, however. Maybe +I'll never have to go. We'll speak to Aunt Janet." + +And so that night, after Archie was asleep, Lilias spoke to her aunt. + +"Are you weary of me, Lilias, that you wish to leave me so soon?" asked +her aunt, gravely. + +"Oh, aunt, you cannot think that. If it were only not wrong for me to +bide here always!" + +"And why do you not think it right to bide here always?" asked her aunt. + +"Because I am young and strong, and I ought to be working for you, +rather than that you should be doing so much for me." + +"But you have been working for me. You have helped me greatly since you +came here." + +"Yes, a little, perhaps," said Lilias, thoughtfully. "But that's not +what I mean. Are you not very poor now, Aunt Janet?" + +"Well, I cannot say that I am very rich," said her aunt, smiling. "But +I'm not so poor but that I can shelter my brother's orphan bairns for a +while at least." And then she added, gravely, "I have no doubt but you +could make yourself very useful, and I dare say Mrs Graham would like +to have you there; but there are many reasons why such a thing is not to +be thought of." + +"Will you tell me some of them, aunt?" + +"You have no need to go, my child; and, even if you had, you are not +strong enough. You are by no means fit for the work you would have to +do there; though you could have no better place than the manse. No, no, +my lassie, you must bide here among the hills, and gather health and +strength for the struggles that life must bring to you as well as to +others. All you could gain would but ill repay you for the loss of +health; and you are not very strong, dear." + +"But I am stronger than one would think to see me; and I'll be getting +stronger, living in a country place. I think I might be strong enough +for Mrs Graham." + +"But, even if you were strong enough, for all our sakes, it is not to be +thought of that you should go now. Archie would pine without you. And +unless you are weary of this quiet place, and wish for a change, you +must put away all thought of leaving us, for a time at least." + +"Weary! Oh, no, aunt. And I know Archie would miss me; but he could +spare me; and I could go if it was right. I can do a great many things, +and I would try to learn." + +"Yes, you can do a great many things; and that is one reason why I can't +spare you, Lily. I think I have the best right to my brother's +daughter." And she drew the little girl fondly towards her as she +spoke. + +"Oh, aunt," exclaimed Lilias eagerly, "if I could really help you and be +a comfort to you, I would like nothing half so well." + +"You can be useful to me. You are a comfort to me. I hardly know how I +could part from you now, dear. Our way of living must be very humble; +but that will not be so bad as being parted--will it, my Lily? You have +learnt to love me a little, my child?" + +Lilias answered by putting her arms round her aunt's neck, and kissing +her again and again. Then in a low voice she said: + +"You mind me of my father." + +"And you mind me of the brother I loved and watched over as a child, and +honoured as a man. If it is God's will, we will not be parted, my +beloved child." + +And so it was settled, and Lilias's heart was set at rest about the +matter; and in the morning her face told the tidings to Archie before +her lips could speak the words. + +Mrs Blair's cottage lay at the distance of several miles from the kirk +of Dunmoor, which she had all her life attended. It was some time +before Archie was able to go so far, and Lilias had stayed at home with +him. At length, one fine, clear Sabbath in the end of September, Mrs +Blair yielded to their entreaties to be permitted to go with her; and +early in the morning they set out. Instead of going by the highway, +they took a pleasanter path over the hills, resting often, for Archie's +sake, on some grey stone or mossy bank. The length of the way was +beguiled by pleasant talk. Mrs Blair told them of the Sabbath journeys +to the kirk from Glen Elder when she and her little brother were all in +all to each other; and Lilias and Archie could never grow weary of +hearing of their father's youthful days. Many in the kirk that day +looked with interest on the children of Alexander Elder, as they sat by +his sister's side, in the very same seat where he used to sit so many +years ago; and many an earnest "God bless them!" went up to the Father +of the fatherless in their behalf. Yes, it was the very same seat in +which their father used to sit; and Lilias could hardly repress her +tears as she saw his initials, with a date many years back, carved in +the dark wood before her. The psalm-book, too, which he had used, had +never been removed; and his name, in a large schoolboy's hand, was +written many times on its blank leaves. Many of the Psalms were marked, +too, as having been learnt at such or such a time; and it was long +before Lilias could think of anything but the little lad like Archie +(only rosy and strong) who had sat there with his sister so many years +ago. The voice that spoke from the brown old pulpit was the same to +which he had listened; for the aged minister had been her grandfather's +friend, and her father had grown up beneath his eye, one of the dearest +of a well-beloved flock. + +His face and voice were to Lilias like those of a dear, familiar friend; +and when he spoke of the things of which she loved to hear, she could no +longer restrain her tears: indeed, she never thought of trying. + +"For my ways are not as your ways; neither are my thoughts as your +thoughts," were the words from which he spoke; and when he told them how +it was oftentimes the way of our good Father in heaven to lead His +chosen, worn and weary, fainting beneath heavy burdens, over rough +places, through darkness and gloom, but all safe home at last, the words +went to the child's heart as though they had been spoken to her alone of +all who were waiting for a portion there; and her heart made answer, +"What does it matter? It is only for a little while, and then all safe +home at last. Not one forgotten, not one left out, in that day." + +Archie, too, listened intently, but not with tears. There was an +earnest look in his eyes, and a grave smile about his mouth, as though +he were hearing some glad tidings; and when the minister sat down, he +leaned over towards his sister, and whispered softly: + +"I like that." + +And Lilias smiled in reply. + +When the service was over, and Mrs Blair and the children had passed +out into the kirk-yard, Mrs Graham, the minister's widowed daughter, +came and invited them into the manse till it should be time for the +service in the afternoon. Mrs Blair went with her; but Archie was shy, +and liked better to stay out in the pleasant kirk-yard; and Lilias +stayed with him. The place had a quiet Sabbath look about it, which +suited well the feelings of the children; and, as the resting-place of +many friends of their father, it was full of interest to them. Many of +the people who had come--from a distance stayed also, and seated +themselves, in small parties, here and there among the grave-stones; but +not a loud or discordant voice arose to break the silence that reigned +around. + +The kirk itself was a quaint old building, around which many interesting +historical associations clustered. The large stones of which it was +built were dark with age; and the ivy that grew thickly over the western +wall gave it the appearance of an ancient ruin. Dark firs and yew-trees +grew around the kirk-yard, and here and there over the grave of a friend +the hand of affection had planted a weeping-willow. On a low slab +beneath one of these the brother and sister sat for a time in silence, +broken at last by Archie. + +"Oh, Lily! this is a bonny quiet place. How I wish they were lying +here!" + +"Yes," said Lilias, softly, "among their friends. But it makes no +difference. I never think of them as lying there." + +"Oh, no! they are not there. I suppose it is all the same to them. But +yet, if I were going to die, I would like better to lie down here in +this quiet place than among the many, many graves yonder in the town. +Wouldn't you, Lily?" + +"Yes; for some things I would. I should like to be where the friends I +love could often come. Look yonder how all the people are sitting +beside the graves of their own friends. That is Ellen Wilson and her +brother beside their father's grave. I read the name on the stone as I +came in this morning. And Mrs Stirling's husband and children are +buried there in the corner where she is sitting. She told me about them +the last time she was in. I think the folk here must mind their friends +better than they would if they never saw their graves." + +"But we'll never forget our father and mother, though we can't see their +graves," said Archie, eagerly; "I do wish they were lying here beside my +grandfather and all the rest." + +Lilias did not answer, for they were about to be interrupted. Only one +of the persons who were approaching them was known to her, and she did +not think her a very agreeable acquaintance, and a slight feeling of +impatience rose within her as she drew near. + +Mrs Stirling was one of those unfortunate persons who constantly move +in an atmosphere of gloom. Her face seemed to express a desire to +banish all cheerfulness and silence all laughter wherever she came. She +had never, even in her best days, been blessed with a heavenly temper, +and much care and many sorrows had made it worse. Men had dealt hardly +with her, and God, she believed, had done the same. One short month had +made her a widow and childless, and then other troubles had followed. +From circumstances of comfort she had been reduced, by the carelessness +and dishonesty of those whom she had trusted, to a state of comparative +poverty. This last trouble had been, in a measure, removed, but the +bitterness it had stirred in her heart had never subsided. + +If a subject had a dark side, she not only chose to look at it herself, +but held it up before the eyes of all concerned. Having once been +deceived, she never ceased to suspect, and, which was still worse, she +even strove (from the best of motives, as she believed) to excite +suspicion and discomfort in the minds of others; and, notwithstanding +her well-known character as a prophesier of evil things, she did +sometimes succeed in making people unhappy. She was, as the minister +said, a pitiable example of the effects of unsanctified affliction, and +a warning to all who felt inclined to murmur under the chastening hand +of God. + +During one or two visits at Mrs Blair's cottage, Mrs Stirling had made +Lilias uncomfortable, she scarce knew why; and now, though she did not +say so to Archie, she heartily wished she would stay at the other end of +the kirk-yard. + +"Weel, bairns," she said, as she drew near, "your aunt didna take you +with her into the manse. Are you not weary sitting so long on the +stones?" + +"No," said Lilias. "Archie liked better to bide out here. This is a +bonny place." + +"Oh, ay, it's a bonny place enow," said Mrs Stirling. Then, turning to +Archie, she said, "And so you liked better to bide out here than to go +in to your dinner at the manse? Well, it's a good bairn that likes to +do what it's bidden. I dare say Mrs Blair would have felt some +delicacy in taking you both into the manse parlour; though why she +should, is more than the like of me knows." + +To this there was no reply to be made; and in a minute, turning again to +Lilias, she asked: + +"And when are you going to the manse as nurse, my dear?" + +Lilias said she was not going at all. + +"No! Where then? To Pentlands? I told your aunt that Mrs Jones, the +housekeeper, wanted a lassie to help in the kitchen; but it's a place +full of temptations for a young thing like you. I wonder at Mrs +Blair." + +Lilias replied, rather hastily, that she was not going anywhere just +now; she was going to bide at home with her aunt. + +"Well, well, my dear, you needn't be angry at my asking; though there's +little wonder that the daughter of Alexander Elder shouldn't like to +have it said that she ought to go and gain her bread as a servant. We +can't always part with our pride when we part with our money. Nobody +knows that better than I do." + +"It's not pride that keeps me at home," said Lilias, in a low voice. "I +would go gladly if my aunt thought it needful; but she says it is not." + +"Oh, well, my dear, I dare say your aunt knows best. She may have money +that I didn't know of. Maybe you wasn't so ill off as is said." + +"Whisht! do you not see that you are vexing the bairns? Never mind her, +my dear," said the pleasant-looking young woman whom Lilias had called +Ellen Wilson, sitting down on the stone beside her. "I think this part +of the country seems to agree with you both. Your brother looks much +better than he did when he came first." + +Lilias smiled gratefully in answer to this, and looked with loving pride +at her brother. But Nancy Stirling had not yet said her say. + +"Looks better, does he? I wonder how he could have looked before? Such +a whitefaced creature I have seldom seen. He reminds me of the laddie +that died at Pentlands, of a decline, a month since. I doubt he isn't +long for this world." + +"Whisht!" again interrupted Ellen, "you don't know what you are saying, +I think." + +"Archie is much better," said Lilias, eagerly. "He couldn't set his +foot to the ground when we first came here; and now he can walk miles." + +"Oh, ay; change of air is ay thought good for the like of him. But it's +a deceitful complaint. We all ken that your father died of +consumption,--and your mother too, it's likely." + +"No," said Lilias, in a low voice. "She died of fever." + +"Mrs Stirling," exclaimed Ellen Wilson, "I canna but wonder that one +that has had the troubles you have had, should have so little +consideration for other folks. Do you not see that you are vexing the +bairns?" + +"Weel, it's not my design nor my desire to vex them,--poor things! It +never harmed me to get a friend's sympathy; though it's little ever I +got. I'll not trouble them." And she went and seated herself at a +little distance from the children. + +An old man, with very white hair, but a ruddy and healthy countenance, +had been walking up and down the path, his hands clasped behind his +back, and his staff beneath his arm. As he passed the place where Mrs +Stirling sat, he paused, saying in a cheerful, kindly voice: + +"This is a bonny day, Mrs Stirling." + +"Oh, ay," replied Nancy, drearily; "it's a bonny day." + +"And a fine harvest we are getting," said the old man, again,--"if we +were only thankful to God for His undeserved goodness." + +"Oh, ay; considering all things, the harvest's not so bad in some +places, and in others it's just middling. It's not got in yet. We must +wait awhile before we set ourselves up upon it." + +"It would ill become us to set ourselves up on that, or any other good +gift of the Lord," said the old man, gravely; "but you and I, Nancy, +have seen many a different harvest from this in our day. We are ready +enough to murmur if the blessing be withheld, and to take it as our +right when it is sent. There's many a poor body in the countryside who +may thank God for the prospect of an easy winter. He has blessed us in +our basket and in our store." + +"Oh, well, I dare say I'm as thankful as my neighbours, though I say +less about it," said Nancy, tartly. "I dare say there's many a poor +body will need all they have, and more, before the winter's over." + +"You see you needn't mind what Mrs Stirling says," said Ellen, who with +the children had listened to the conversation thus far. "She's always +boding ill. It's her nature. She has had many things to make the world +look dreary to her,--poor woman! Yonder is James Muir, one of our +elders,--a good man, if ever there was one. He knew your father, and +your grandfather too." + +Yes, he had known their father well; and the next time he turned down +the path he stopped to speak to them. Not in many words, but kindly and +gravely, as his large, kind heart prompted; and Lilias felt that he was +one that might be relied on in time of need. + +"There's your aunt again, with Mrs Graham and the manse bairns," said +Ellen, as they approached. They rose, and went to meet them at the kirk +door; and while their aunt and Mrs Graham waited to speak a few words +to James Muir, they exchanged sly glances with the young people +designated by Ellen as "the manse bairns." + +They were the grandchildren of the aged minister. Their father, his +only son,--a minister too,--had, within a year, died in the large town +where he had been settled, and his widow had come with her children to +the manse, which was now their home. + +Too shy to speak to the strangers, they cast many a look of sympathy on +the lame boy and his sister who were both fatherless and motherless. +By-and-by the little Jessie ventured to put into Archie's hand a bunch +of brilliant garden-flowers that she had carried. Archie did not speak; +but his smile thanked her, and the flowers bloomed in the cottage-window +for many days. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +LIFE AT KIRKLANDS. + +But all the days in Kirklands were not sunny days. The pleasant harvest +time went over, and the days grew short and rainy. Not with the +pleasant summer rain, coming in sudden gusts to leave the earth more +fresh and beautiful when the sunshine came again, but with a dull, +continuous drizzle, dimming the window-panes, and hiding in close, +impenetrable mist the outline of the nearest summits. The pleasant +rambles among hills and glens, and the pleasanter restings by the +burn-side, were all at an end now. The swollen waters of the burn hid +the stone seat where the children had loved to sit, and the sere leaves +of the rowan-tree lay scattered in the glen. Even when a blink of +sunshine came, they could not venture out among the dripping heather, +but were fain to content themselves with sitting on the turf seat at the +house-end. + +For all Aunt Janet's prophecy had not come true, thus far. There were +no roses blooming on Archie's cheeks yet; and sometimes, when Lilias +watched his pale face, as he sat gazing out into the mist, she was +painfully reminded of the time when he used to watch the shadow of the +spire coming slowly round to the yew-tree by the kirk-yard gate. + +But there were no days now so long and sad as those days had been. The +memory of their last great grief was often present with them; but the +sense of orphanhood grew less bitter, day by day, as time went on. +Archie was not quite strong and well yet, but he was far better than he +had been for many a long month; and Lilias' feeling of anxiety on his +account began to wear away. Gradually they found for themselves new +employments and amusements, and their life fell into a quiet and +pleasant routine again. + +A new source of interest and enjoyment was opened to them in the return +of Mrs Blair's scholars after the harvest-holidays were over. There +were between fifteen and twenty girls, and a few boys, whose ages varied +from six to twelve or fourteen. They were taught reading, writing, and +the catechism; and some of the elder girls were taught to knit and sew. + +Archie used sometimes to be weary of the hum of voices and the unvaried +routine of the lessons; but Lilias never was. To her it was a constant +pleasure to assist her aunt. Indeed, after a time some of the classes +were entirely given up to her care. She had never been much with other +children, but her gentle tones and quiet womanly ways gave her a control +over them; and even the roughest and most unruly of the village children +learnt to yield her a ready obedience. + +Mrs Blair had striven to do faithfully the work she had undertaken of +instructing these ignorant children; but at her age the formation of new +habits was by no means easy. The constant attention to trifles which +the occupation required was at times inexpressibly irksome to her; and +the relief which the assistance of Lilias gave her was proportionally +great. + +"I'm sure I know not how I ever got on without my lassie," she said, one +day, after watching with wonder and delight the patience with which she +arranged the little girls' work,--a task for which patience was greatly +needed. "I shall grow to be a useless body if I let you do all that is +to be done in this way. Are you not weary with your day's work, Lilias, +my dear?" + +"Weary!" said Lilias, laughing. "I don't need to be weary, for all I +have done. It's only play to hear the bairns read and spell. I like it +very much." + +"But it's not play to take out and put into shape, and to sew as you +have been doing for the last hour. I fear I put too much upon you, +Lilias." + +"Oh, now you are surely laughing at me. I wish I could do ten times as +much. Do I really help you, Aunt Janet?" + +"Ay, more than you know, my darling. But put by your work for a night, +and run down the brae, and freshen the roses that are just beginning to +bloom on your cheeks. We mustn't let them grow white again, if we can +help it." + +But the best time of all was when the children had gone home,--when, +with the door close shut against the wintry blast, they sat together +around the pleasant firelight, talking, or reading, or musing, as each +felt most inclined. From her father's well-chosen library Mrs Blair +had preserved a few books, that were books indeed,--books of which every +page contained more real material for thought than many a much-praised +modern volume. Read by themselves, the quaint diction of some of these +old writers must have been unintelligible to the children; but with the +grave and simple comments of their aunt to assist their understanding, a +new world of thought and feeling was opened to them. Many a grave +discussion did they have on subjects whose names would convey no idea to +the minds of most children of their age. There was often a mingling of +folly and wisdom in their opinions and theories, that amused and +surprised their aunt. Archie's lively imagination sometimes ventured on +flights from which the grave expostulations of Lilias could not always +draw him. + +"To the law and to the testimony, Archie, lad," was his aunt's +never-failing suggestion; and then his eager, puzzled face would be bent +over the Bible, till his wild imaginings vanished of themselves, without +waiting to be reasoned away. + +But the history of their country was the chief delight of those long +winter evenings. One read aloud; but the eyes of both rested on the +page with an eagerness that did not pass away after the first perusal. +The times and events that most interested them were gone over and over, +till they were ready to forget that they of whom they read had long +since passed away: Murray and Douglas, John Knox and Rutherford, and +Mary, lived and laboured, and sinned and suffered, still in their +excited feelings. It is true, their interest and sympathy vacillated +between the contending parties. They did not always abide by their +principles in the praise or blame awarded. Their feelings were +generally on the side of the sufferers, whoever they might be; and if +their eyes sparkled with delight at the triumphant energy of Knox, their +tears for poor Queen Mary were none the less sincere. + +But it was the history of the later times that stirred their hearts to +their inmost depths,--the times... + + "When in muirland and valley the standard of Zion, + All bloody and torn, 'mong the heather was lying." + +...When Charles strove to put in shackles the Scottish mind, and quench +in the Scottish heart that love for the pure and simple truth for which +the best and noblest have died. About these times and these men they +were never weary of reading and speaking. + +"There will never more be such times in Scotland," said Archie, as +Lilias shut the history, and took down the Bible and psalm-books for +their evening worship. + +"Thank God, no!" said his aunt, hastily; "though one might think, from +your face, that it is no matter of thankfulness to you." + +"I don't wish those times to come back," said the boy musingly; "but I +wish I had lived then. It must have been worth a man's while to live in +those days." + +"And why is it not as much worth a man's while to live in the days that +are to come as in the days that are past?" asked his aunt, with a smile. + +Archie looked up quickly. + +"I know what you are thinking, aunt:--that a poor cripple lad could have +done as little then as he can do now." And Archie sighed. + +"No: I was thinking that it needs as much courage and patience, and as +much of God's grace, for a poor cripple lad to bear (as He would have +him bear) the trouble He sends, as would have stood a man in good stead +before the face of Claverhouse himself. The heroes of history are not +always the greatest heroes, after all, Archie, my laddie." + +"Maybe not, aunt; but, then, it's only a sore leg I have to bear; and +who is the better whether I bear it well or ill?" + +"Archie, man, you are speaking foolishly," returned, his aunt, gravely. +"It matters much to yourself whether you bear your trouble well or ill. +It was sent to you for discipline, and that you might be better fitted +for the honouring of His name; and He who sent it can make it answer +these ends in you as well as though He had cast your lot in those +troublous times, and made you a buckler of strength against His foes and +the foes of His people." + +"But, aunt," said Lilias, "it's surely not wrong to wish to be placed +where we can do much for Him? I don't wonder Archie should wish to have +lived in those days." + +"No, love: such a wish is not wrong, provided it doesn't act as a +temptation to neglect present opportunities. We are all by nature +self-seekers, and in no small danger of giving ourselves credit for +wishing to serve the Lord, when, maybe, He sees it is ourselves we wish +to serve. The best evidence we can give that we would honour Him in a +larger sphere is, that we strive to honour Him in the sphere in which He +has placed us." + +"But after all, aunt, it would be grand to be able to do as much for +God's cause as some of those men did. I can't think that any one, to +say nothing of a poor cripple lad, has an opportunity to do as much now +as those men had." + +"To do is a great thing in the sight of men. But I am thinking that, in +His sight who sees further than men can see, _to suffer_ may be greater +than _to do_. But have patience, Archie, lad. He who has given you to +suffer now, may give you to do before you die. You may have to fight +the battles of the Lord in high places. Who knows?" + +"That would be near as well as to fight with the dragoons: would it not, +Archie?" said Lilias, laughing. "I'm sure it would be far easier." + +"Maybe not, my lassie," said her aunt, gravely. "There may be battles +fierce and sore that are bloodless battles; and Scotland may not be +through all her warfare yet. But take the books, bairns, and let us be +thankful that, whatever may befall us or our land, we have always the +same word to guide us." + +There was one drawback to the happiness of the children, this winter; +and it was felt for a time to be no slight one. They could not go to +the kirk at Dunmoor, their father's kirk. The winter rains had made the +way over the hills impassable; and the distance by the high-road was too +great for them. They learnt in a little while to love the kindly voice +of the minister of Kirklands parish, and they soon got many a kindly +greeting from the neighbours at the kirk door. But it was not the same +to Lilias as sitting in her father's seat, and listening to the voice of +her father's friend; and the getting back to the dear old kirk at +Dunmoor was always told over as one of the pleasant things which the +spring would bring back again. + +At Christmas-time there came a new scholar to the school, and no small +stir did her coming make there. For the first nine years of her life, +Elsie Ray had been the neglected child of a careless and indolent +mother. At her death, Elsie had come to the neighbourhood of Kirklands, +to live with her grandfather and her aunt. She thus passed from one +extreme of misfortune to the other. From roaming at large in whatever +place and in whatever company she chose, she became at once the in-door +drudge of her aunt and the out-door drudge of her grandfather. The +father and daughter agreed perfectly in one respect. Their ruling +passion was the same,--the love of money. It was believed in the +neighbourhood that they had laid by a considerable sum; but nothing +could be more wretched than their usual mode of life. Their business +was the keeping of cows and poultry; and they found an efficient +assistant in the strong and energetic Elsie. The life of constant +occupation which she was obliged to live with them was less dangerous to +an active-minded child than the idle, sauntering existence she had +passed with her mother. But it left her no time for improvement; and +she seemed likely to grow up in ignorance. The chance visit of an uncle +saved her from this sad fate. Her grandfather so far attended to his +remonstrances as to send her, during three or four of the least busy +months, to Mrs Blair's school. + +It would be difficult to imagine a more unpromising pupil than Elsie +appeared to be when Lilias first took her in hand; for to Lilias' +special care was she committed. Wonder unspeakable to the children in +the school was the sight of a girl of Elsie's age who could not say the +catechism, which every Scotch child begins to learn almost in infancy. +But this was by no means the greatest defect in the education of the +new-comer; for it soon appeared that "great A" and "crooked S" were as +utter mysteries to her as any sentence in the catechism. And their +wonder was by no means silent wonder. More than once during the first +week was Elsie's ready hand raised to resent the mockery of her +tormentors. It needed constant watchfulness on the part of Lilias to +keep the peace; and nothing but her earnest and gentle encouragement +would have prevented the girl from giving up, in disgust, the attempt to +learn to read. + +This was only for a short time, however. Her rapid improvement in +reading, as well as sewing, was a constant source of wonder and delight +to her young teacher; and soon the mocking of the children was silenced. + +Nor was it in these things alone that improvement appeared. Incited +partly by the precept and partly by the example of Lilias, a great +change soon became visible in her appearance and manners. There was a +decided attempt at neatness in her rather shabby garments; and a look +from Lilias, or even the remembrance of her, had power to stay the +utterance of the rude or angry word ere it passed her lips. Her +naturally affectionate disposition had been chilled by the life she had +been leading for the last few years, and her heart opened gratefully to +the kindness of Lilias. Under her influence, her good qualities were +rapidly developed; and she soon became a great favourite with them all. + +"It has made a great difference, Elsie's being here," Lilias often said; +and when one morning Elsie came with swollen eyes to say that she could +come no more, Lilias felt inclined to weep with her. She comforted her, +however, telling her she would often come with Archie to see her while +she was feeding her cows on the hills, and that when the winter came +again her grandfather would let her come back to the school. So Elsie +dried her eyes, and promised to let no day pass without trying to read +at least one whole chapter in the little Testament that Lilias gave her +at parting. + +There was no lack of incidents to break the monotony of their life +during the winter. Among the most frequent and by no means the least +interesting of these were the visits of Mrs Stirling. She never passed +to or from Kirklands--where all her little purchases were made--without +calling; and a wonderful interest she seemed to take in all that +concerned the children, especially Lilias; and she always met with a +welcome. Not that her visits were usually very cheerful affairs. The +conversation generally turned upon the troubles of life--great and +small, and especially her own--those she had experienced and those she +dreaded. + +Mrs Blair was often greatly amused by the earnest and grave attempts of +Lilias to make the world look brighter to poor Nancy. Sometimes these +attempts took the form of sympathy, sometimes of expostulation; and more +than once there was something like gentle rebuke in the child's words +and tones. She could not boast of success, however. If Mrs Stirling +could not reply in words, she never failed to enter a protest against +the cheerful philosophy of Lilias, by a groan, or a shake of the head, +expressive of utter incredulousness. She was never angry, however, as +Mrs Blair was sometimes afraid she might be. Indeed, she seemed +greatly to enjoy the little girl's conversation; and sometimes her +visits were rather unreasonably lengthened. Archie she never addressed +but in terms of the deepest commiseration. At every visit she saw, or +seemed to see, that he was changing for the worse; and "poor, helpless +bairn!" or "poor pining laddie!" were the most cheerful names she gave +him. Her melancholy anecdotes of similar cases, and her oft-repeated +fears that "he would never see the month of June," vexed and troubled +Lilias greatly. At first they troubled Archie too; but he soon came not +to heed them; and one day, when she was in a more than usually doleful +mood, wondering what Lilias would do without him, and whether it would +save his life if his leg were cut off, he quite offended her by laughing +in her face. + +"To think of me wasting good breath sympathising with you!" she +exclaimed. "No, no! You're not so near heaven as I thought you. +You're none too good to bide in this world a while yet. To think of the +laddie laughing at me!" + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +SUMMER DAYS AT KIRKLANDS. + +And so the winter passed away, and the spring came again,--the sunshine +and showers of April, more than renewing the delight of the children's +first weeks in Kirklands. They had never been in the country in the +early spring before; and even "bonny Glen Elder," in the prime of +summer, had no wonders such as revealed themselves day by day to their +unaccustomed eyes. The catkins on the willows, the gradual swelling of +the hawthorn-buds, the graceful tassels of the silver birch, were to +them a beauty and a mystery. The gradual change of brown fields to a +living green, as the tender blades of the new-sown grain sprang up, was +wondrous too. The tiny mosses on the rocks, the ferns hidden away from +other eyes, were searched for and rejoiced over. No wild flower by the +wayside, no bird or butterfly, no new development of life in any form, +but won from them a joyful greeting. + +And so there were again the pleasant wanderings among hills and glens, +and the pleasanter restings by the burn-side. But they were not so +frequent now, for Lilias' life was a very busy one, and she could not, +even if she had wished, have laid aside the duties she had taken upon +herself. But her freedom was all the sweeter when her duties were done; +and seldom a day passed without an hour or two of bright sunshine and +fresh air, and never before had the world seemed half so beautiful. + +And Lilias had another source of happiness, better than birds or flowers +or sunshine: Archie was growing strong again. Before May was out, his +crutches occupied a permanent place behind the cottage-door, and he was +away on the hill without them, drinking in life and health with every +breath of balmy air. He was no longer the little cripple, painfully +following the footsteps of his sister, slackened to suit his lagging +pace. Lame he was still, and always might be, and a slender +"willow-wand of a laddie," as Mrs Stirling still declared; but there +was a tinge of healthy colour on cheek and lip, and instead of the look +that reminded Lilias of the shadow creeping round to the gate of the +kirk-yard, there came back to his face and blithe look of earlier days. +His very voice and smile seemed changed; and his laughter, so seldom +heard for many a weary month, was music to his sister's ear. + +Her joy in his returning health was altogether unmingled. Sometimes, +when weary of the noise and confinement of school, it quite rested and +refreshed her to remember that he was out in the air and sunshine. She +never murmured that he enjoyed it all without her; and when he came home +at night, telling, triumphantly, of the miles and miles he had walked +and the new sights he had seen among the hills, her delight was quite as +great as his. + +At first Archie had no other interest in his wanderings than that which +pleasant sights and sounds and a consciousness of returning strength +gave him. It was happiness enough to lie down in some quiet valley, +with only his beloved book as his companion, or, seated on some +hill-side, to gaze on a landscape whose loveliness has been the theme of +many a poet's song. + +But pleasant sights and sounds, and even his beloved book, did not +always suffice him for companionship; and he soon found his way to more +than one shieling among the hills; and more than one solitary shepherd +soon learnt to look for the coming of the lad, "so old-fashioned, yet so +gladsome." Sometimes he read to them from his favourite books; but +oftener they talked, and Archie heard many a legend of the countryside +from the lips that could tell them best. + +His father and grandfather were well remembered by many whom they had +befriended in time of need; and the lad listened with delight to their +praises, and with equal delight repeated them to his aunt and Lilias +when he came home. + +But there were other things, which Archie spoke of in whispers to his +sister when they were away together among the hills,--mysterious hints +of their cousin Hugh Blair, and of his mother's troubles with him before +he went away. Not that he had much to tell about him, for there was +little said; but that little was enough to excite the curiosity and +interest of the children with regard to him; and they were never weary +of wondering why he went away, and where he was now, and whether he +would ever come home again. + +"I wonder whether Aunt Janet thinks much about him? I wonder why she +never names him to us?" said Archie, one day, after they had been +speaking about him. + +Lilias was looking very grave. + +"I'm sure she often thinks of him. And I don't wonder that she seldom +speaks about him, when she can have little that is good to say." + +"Maybe she thinks him dead," said Archie. + +"No: I don't think that," said Lilias, sadly. And after a moment she +added, "Last night the sound of her voice wakened me. She was praying +for him; and it minded me of the `groanings that cannot be uttered.' I +am afraid Aunt Janet has troubles we know nothing about." + +Yes, Mrs Blair had troubles which the children did not know of, which +they could hardly have comprehended had they known; and, of late, fears +for Archie had mingled with them. The remembrance of her utter failure +in guiding and governing her own son was ever present with her, filling +her with anxiety with regard to Archie's future. She had no fears for +Lilias, nor when her brother was a cripple had she fears for him. But +now that he was strong and well,--now that he must necessarily be +exposed to other influences, some of which could not but be evil, her +heart grew sick with a feeling of self-distrust as to her own power to +guide him. + +It was this which made her listen with something like regret when Archie +told of new friends made among the hills. His frank, open nature made +him altogether unsuspicious of evil in others; and, knowing him to be +easily influenced, she could not but fear that he might be led astray. +Night after night, when Archie came home, she listened earnestly to hear +the names of those with whom he had met; and, though she never heard +anything from the boy's lips or saw anything in his actions to make her +fear that he was changing for the worse, she could not feel quite at +ease concerning him. For there ever came back to her the thought of her +son,--her wandering but still beloved Hugh; and many and earnest were +the prayers that ascended both for the guileless child and the erring, +sinful man, that through all the snares and temptations of life they +might be brought safe home at last. + +She could not speak of her fears to Lilias. She could not find it in +her heart to lay the burden of this dread upon the child. She was so +full of the new happiness of seeing her brother strong and well again, +that she could not bear to let the shadow of this cloud fall upon her. +It would do no good; and she had really nothing but her fears to tell. +So in silence she prayed, night and day, that God would disappoint her +fears for Archie, and more than realise his sister's hope for him. + +Mrs Stirling's visits to the cottage did not become less frequent as +the summer advanced, and her interest in Lilias seemed to increase with +every visit. Not that she had ceased to torment the child with her +discontented repinings for the past, or her melancholy forebodings for +the future. There was always some subject for comment ready; and Nancy +never let pass unimproved an opportunity to say something depressing. +But Lilias was learning not to mind her; and this was all the easier to +do, now that Archie's ill-health could no longer be her theme. + +"Oh, ay! he's looking not so ill," said she, one day, while she stood +with Lilias at the gate, watching Archie, as he dug in the little +garden; "and he's not very lame. If you could only be sure that it +wouldn't break out again. Eh me! but he's growing to look awful like +his cousin Hugh. It's to be hoped that he won't turn out as he has +done." + +Lilias gave a startled look towards the house-end, where her aunt was +sitting, as she answered, hurriedly: + +"Archie's like my father." + +"You needna be feared that I'll speak that name loud enough for her to +hear," said Nancy, answering Lilias' look rather than her words. "I +have more respect for her than that. Poor body! she must carry a sore +heart about with her, for all she looks so quiet and contented like." + +Lilias sighed. The same thought had come into her own mind many and +many a time within the last few months. + +"Did my cousin Hugh do anything so very bad?" she asked, looking +anxiously into Mrs Stirling's face. + +"I dare say the folk that blame him most have done far worse things than +anything they can lay to his charge," said Nancy; "but there's little +doubt he did what made him fear to look on his mother's face again, or +wherefore should he not have come back? His name has never, to my +knowledge, passed her lips from that day till this." + +"But Donald Ross, up among the hills, told Archie that folk thought he +had 'listed for a soldier, and that he couldna come back again." + +"Well, maybe not," said Nancy. "Far be it from me to seek to make worse +what is bad enough already. It's not unlikely. But, as I was saying, +Archie's growing awfu' like him, and it is to be hoped he will not take +to ill ways. You should have an eye upon him, Lilias, my woman, that he +doesn't take up with folk that `call evil good, and good evil.' It was +that was the ruin of Hugh Blair,--poor laddie!" + +"Archie sees no one among the hills that can do him harm," said Lilias, +hastily,--"only Donald Ross and the Muirlands shepherds, and now and +then a herd-laddie from Alliston. He ay tells us, when he comes home, +who he has seen." + +"Eh, woman! I didn't mean to anger you," exclaimed Nancy. "I declare, +your eyes are glancing like two coals. But, if your aunt is wise, +she'll put him to some kind of work before long. Laddies like him must +ay be about something; and if they are doing no good it's likely they'll +be doing evil. Your aunt should know that well enough, without the like +of me to tell her." + +"But Archie is such a mere child," remonstrated Lilias, forgetting for +the moment that it was Mrs Stirling, the grumbler for the countryside, +that was speaking. "What ill can he get among the hills? And, besides, +what work could he do? It's health for him to wander about among the +hills. It makes him strong." + +"You're a child yourself for that matter," said Nancy; "and I'm thinking +what with those children's catechism and work, and one thing and +another, you do the most part of a woman's work. And what's to hinder +your brother more than you? It would keep him out of harm's way." + +Lilias suffered this conversation to make her uncomfortable for a few +days, and then she wisely put it from her. She would not speak to +Archie. She would not even seem to distrust him. And still the boy +came and went at his pleasure, enjoying his rambles and his intercourse +with his new friends, glad to go forth, and glad to come home again, +where the sight of his face always made sunshine for his sister. And +Mrs Blair still went about with outward calm, but carrying within her a +heavy and anxious heart, as by the sighs and prayers of many a sleepless +night, Lilias well knew. + +This was the child's one sorrow. Sometimes she longed to speak to her +aunt about her cousin, and comfort her by weeping with her; but she +never had courage to broach the subject. The wanderer's name had never +been mentioned between them; and Lilias had something like a feeling of +guilt upon her in hearing, as she could not but hear, the midnight +mourning of the stricken mother. + +"And to think that this trouble has been upon her for so many years!" +she thought to herself, one night, as she lay listening to her aunt's +sighs and murmured prayers. "It must be ten years at least; for I have +no recollection of my cousin Hugh. And she has carried about this great +grief all that time alone, and has sought comfort from no one. Oh, if I +could but comfort her!" for Lilias did not know that there are some +sorrows to which sympathy adds only bitterness. + +Summer brought another pleasure to them all. Their Sabbath journeys +over the hills to the kirk of Dunmoor were renewed; and, sitting in her +father's seat, and listening to the words of salvation from the lips of +her father's friend, Lilias grew more and more into the knowledge of +"the peace of God that passeth all understanding." Although but a child +in years, early sorrow had taught her some lessons that childhood seldom +learns. The heaviest of their sorrows did not press--upon them now. +There was not the poverty, the ceaseless toil, the constant and +sometimes vain struggle for bread. She could speak of her father and +mother calmly now, and Archie was strong and well again. And so the +look of patience which her face had worn when her aunt first saw it +lying on Archie's pillow in the dim attic room, was changing into a look +of quiet content. Yet she was still unlike other children in many +respects, though the difference was rather to be felt than seen. + +Good James Muir did not speak to her as he did to the manse children or +to Archie, but wisely and gravely, as he might have spoken to her aunt. +Annie Graham, though a full year the elder, much to her own surprise, +and to the surprise of all who knew her self-reliance, found herself +deferring to the opinions of Lilias Elder. Not but that she enjoyed, as +much as any of them, the simple pleasures that were within their reach; +even little Jessie's never-absent laughter was not more full of +heartfelt mirth than hers. + +But as they came to know Lilias better, they all felt that there was +"something beyond." Even little Jessie said "she was like one that was +standing on a sure place, and was not afraid;" and so she was. + +One Sabbath morning, in the kirk, Lilias was startled by the sight of +familiar faces in the minister's seat, faces associated in her mind with +a bright parlour, and kind words spoken to her there. The quick smile +and whisper exchanged by the two lads told her that the Gordon boys had +recognised her too. + +"That's my father's `bonny Lily,'" said Robert Gordon to young John +Graham, who was looking gravely at the boys carrying on a whispered +conference notwithstanding the reading of the psalm. + +And, when the sermon was over, and Lilias, with her aunt and her +brother, stood in the kirk-yard, the boys pressed eagerly forward to +shake hands with her, and express their joy at seeing her again. + +"They are Dr Gordon's sons, aunt," said Lilias, in answer to Mrs +Blair's look of surprise. "I saw them that night." And the vivid +remembrance of "that night" made her cheek grow pale. + +"I hardly knew you,--you have grown so bonny," said Robert, gravely. +Lilias laughed. + +"Come into the manse, and you will see your young friends without +interruption," said kind Mrs Graham. "Come, Archie." + +And so they passed a pleasant hour in the manse garden. The Gordons had +come to pass their summer holidays with their cousins; and they would +often come over the hills to see her, they said. They had a very +pleasant time sitting on the grass in the shadow of the fir-trees. Even +young John Graham, as he paced up and down the walk with a book in his +hand, condescended to show a little curiosity as to the subject of their +conversation, so earnest did their tones become at last; and John Graham +was a college student, and a miracle of wisdom in his sister's eyes. He +wondered if it was all "Sabbath talk" that engrossed them so much; and +his wonder changed to serious doubts, as his little sister Jessie's +voice rose above the voices of all the rest. + +But wise John was mistaken this time. The subject that engrossed them +so much was at the same moment engrossing good James Muir and his +brother elders on the other side of the kirk-yard wall. It was the +sermon and the minister they were discussing. + +Jessie was eloquent on the subject. Of course there never was such a +preacher as her grandfather,--not even the great Dr Chalmers himself, +the child declared; and all the rest agreed. Even Robert Gordon, whose +taste, if the truth must be told, did not lie at all in the direction of +sermons, declared that he had not been very weary that day in the kirk. +Jessie looked a good deal scandalised at this faint praise; but it was +much from Master Robert, if she had but known all. + +Then the question was started whether John would ever preach as well; +and John had to pay the usual penalty of listeners, for all agreed that +this was not to be thought of, at least, not for a long time to come. + +This was the beginning of more frequent intercourse between Lilias and +Archie and the manse children. Lilias was not often with them at first, +for the "harvest-play" of the village children did not come so soon as +the town-boys' holidays, and she could seldom be prevailed upon to leave +her aunt alone in the school. But Archie's company soon became +indispensable to the lads in their daily rambles among the hills. He +had explored the country to some purpose; and not even the manse boys +knew so many places of interest as he did, and he was often their leader +in their long excursions. + +It was a point of honour with Archie never to confess that he was tired +while he could stand; and it was only a fortunate chance that prevented +these long-continued wanderings from being an injury to him. They went +one day to the top of the highest hill in the neighbourhood. Archie, as +usual, led the way; and they had got well on their return, when he was +obliged to confess to himself (though not to his companions) that he +could go no farther. + +They had just left the hills, and stood on the turnpike-road between +Dunmoor and Kirklands, the other lads to go to the manse, and Archie to +go home, a good two miles away yet. It seemed to him that he never +could go so far; and, only waiting till the other lads were out of +sight, he threw himself down on the grass at the roadside, utterly +exhausted. The sound of wheels startled him in a little time, and soon +John Graham, in the manse gig, made his appearance. He drew up at the +sight of Archie, and, in some surprise, asked him what ailed him. + +"Nothing," said Archie, rising painfully. "We have been at the head of +the Colla Hill; and I'm afraid I'm tired: that's all." + +"And that's enough, I think," said John; for the lad's limbs were +trembling under him. "Really, these lads are very inconsiderate. You +should not have let them lead you such a chase." + +"It was me that led them," said Archie,--not exactly liking Master +John's tone. "And I'll soon be rested again." + +But the horse's head was already turned, and John's strong arm lifted +the weary boy to the seat at his side, and he was soon safely set down +at the cottage-door. But it was some time before Archie appeared among +the boys again, so long that John, after taking his brother Davie +severely to task for his thoughtlessness, one fine morning walked over +the hills to see if Archie were really ill. + +"Ill? No! What should make me ill?" But Archie looked pale and weary, +in spite of his denial. He was upon the turf seat at the end of the +house; and, sitting down beside him, John took up the book he had been +reading. It was a volume of Flavel. + +"Have you read much of this?" John asked, wondering at his taste. "Do +you like it?" + +"I haven't read much of it to-day; but Lilias and I read it last winter +to my aunt, and I liked it well, not so well to read to myself, though, +as some others." + +"What others?" asked John. + +"Oh, the History of Scotland, and the Tales of the Covenanters, and some +books of poetry that my aunt has got. But I like Flavel too. Don't +you?" + +"Oh, yes," replied John, smiling, and a little confused. "To tell the +truth, I have not read much of him. Tell me what you think of him. Of +this, for instance." + +And he read the quaint heading of a chapter in the book he held in his +hand. + +It never came into Archie's mind that young John Graham was "just trying +him," as boys say; and, in perfect simplicity and good faith, he gave an +abstract of the chapter, with comments of his aunt's, and some of his +own upon it. It was not very clear or very complete, it is true; but it +was enough to change considerably the expression of John's face as he +listened. + +This was the beginning of a long conversation. John Graham had laid out +for himself three hours of hard reading after his bracing tramp over the +hills; but it was past noon when he went in to see Mrs Blair before he +went away. He did not think the morning wasted; though in general, like +all hard students, he was a miser respecting his time. When he was +going away, he offered Archie any of his books, and said he would help +him to understand them while he stayed at home. + +"That won't be long now, however," he added. "But why don't you go to +school?" + +"I should like to go to Dunmoor parish school with Davie; but my aunt +thinks it's too far." + +"Well, I think, after your scramble to Colla's Head, and the ten good +miles besides, that you walked the other day, you might be able to walk +to Dunmoor school. It is not far, if you were only stronger." + +Oh, Archie was strong; quite strong enough for that, if only his aunt +and Lilias thought so; and maybe they might, if John would speak to them +about it. + +And so it was arranged; and when John went back to college and the +Gordon boys went home, Archie found himself at David Graham's side, +under the firm and not ungentle rule of the Dunmoor parish schoolmaster. +Lilias' joy was scarcely less than his own; and the delight of +welcoming him home at night quite repaid her for his absence during the +day. + +As for her, she began again the business of teaching with wonderful +cheerfulness, and went on with wonderful success. Mrs Blair's office +of schoolmistress was becoming hers only in name, she declared; for +Lilias did all that was to be done, while she sat quietly in her +armchair, knitting or sewing, only now and then administering a word of +caution or reproof to the little ones about her. The children loved +their young teacher dearly. Not one of them but would have travelled +miles to do her a pleasure; and over two or three her influence for good +was very easily seen. + +When the summer and autumn work was fairly over, Elsie Ray came back +again to the school; and Elsie was a very different girl now from the +shy, awkward, ill-clad creature who had come there a stranger last year. +Naturally affectionate, as well as bright, she had from the first +attached herself to Lilias in a peculiar manner, and, to please her, she +had done her utmost to overcome her faults and improve herself in every +way. Her clothes, of her own making, were now as neat as they had been +before untidy. Her leisure time during the summer's herding had not +been misemployed, and she was fast acquiring the reputation of being the +best reader, writer, and sewer in the school; and no small pride did she +feel in her acquirements. In short, as Mrs Stirling declared, "she had +become a decent, purpose-like lass, and Lilias Elder should have the +credit of it." Of the last fact Elsie was as well persuaded as Nancy +was; and her gratitude and devotion to Lilias were in proportion. No +sacrifice would she have considered too great to give proof of her +gratitude to Lilias; and her goodwill stood her friend in good stead +before the winter was over. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +CLOUDS WITH SILVER LININGS. + +Lilias' troubles were not over yet. Even now a cloud was gathering, +little, indeed, at first, and distant, but destined to overshadow her +for many a weary month. Indeed, there were two, as Lilias sometimes +thought, while she stood watching for her brother's home-coming beneath +the rowan-tree in the glen. The way over the hills was hardly safe in +the darkness, and the days were growing short again, and Archie could +seldom get home by daylight now. She began to fear that it would be as +their aunt had more than once hinted,--that he must stay at home till +spring. + +For herself, Lilias would have liked nothing half so well as a renewal +of last winter's pleasures; but she was by no means sure that Archie +would agree with her. + +"He has got a taste of the school, and nothing else will content him +now. And, besides, so clever as the master says he is, it would be such +a pity to take him away just as he has well begun." + +But how to help it was the question; and Lilias revolved it in her mind +so constantly that it quite depressed and wearied her at last, and a +feeling akin to despondency began to oppress her. She did not speak to +Archie of any change. He went and came, day by day, rejoicing in the +new sources of delight that his books and his school afforded, evidently +believing that his plans were settled for the winter; and Lilias would +not disturb him a day sooner than was necessary, and so she bore her +burden alone. In a little while she found that she never need have +borne it at all. The disappointment that she dreaded for Archie never +came; and this was the way it was averted. + +It was Saturday afternoon,--a half-holiday in the school. The children +had gone home, and there was quietness in the cottage. Lilias had given +the last stroke of neatness to the little room. The dinner-table was +set, and they were waiting for Archie. Lilias went to the gate and +strained her eyes in the direction of the hill-path; and, with a slight +sigh of disappointment, she hurried towards the house again. A strange +voice close by her side startled her. + +"You needn't spoil your eyes looking for Archie to-day, for I have given +him leave to go with Davie to the manse, and I dare say Mrs Graham +winna let him want his dinner; and I'll take mine with you. You can get +Archie any time, but it's not often that I am seen in any house but my +own. You needn't look so disappointed." + +Lilias' smile quickly chased the shadow from her face as she cheerfully +invited the schoolmaster to come in; and, stooping low, he entered. + +Mrs Blair had known Peter Butler all his life, and she had often +received him in a very different place from the low room into which he +passed, but never with a more kindly welcome than she gave him now. She +had none of that kind of pride which would make her shrink from a +necessary exposure of her poverty to eyes that had seen her prosperity; +and it was with no trace of embarrassment that she rose, and offered him +the armchair to rest himself in after his long walk; but he declined it +with respectful deference. + +"Many thanks, Mrs Blair, ma'am," said he, seating himself on the end of +a form near the door. Placing his hat beneath it, he took from his +pocket a black silk cap, and deliberately settled it on his head. + +"You'll excuse me, ma'am: I have used myself to wear this in the school, +till it wouldna be safe to go without it. At my time of life, health +mustna be trifled with, you ken." + +Mrs Blair begged the master to make himself comfortable, and there was +a moment's pause. + +"I have taken the liberty to give yon laddie Archie a play this +afternoon. I would like to have a few words with you concerning him, if +you have no objection." + +Mrs Blair eagerly assented, and Lilias' hand was arrested in the act of +lifting the dinner from the hearth to the table. And she stood gazing +at the master with a look so entreating as slightly to discompose him. + +"It's not ill I have to tell of him, lassie. You need not look so like +frightened." + +Lilias set down the dish in some confusion. + +"And if you'll allow me to suggest, ma'am, you'll take your dinner while +it's in season. My news will keep." + +The master had dined before he left home; but, with a delicacy that +would have done honour to a man of greater pretension, he accepted Mrs +Blair's invitation as frankly as it was frankly given. A humble meal it +was, and the master's eyes grew dim, remembering other days, as, +reverently lifting his cap from his broad, bald brow, he prayed for +God's blessing on the offered mercies. + +During the meal, Mr Butler talked fluently enough on many subjects; but +when the dinner was fairly over, and Mrs Blair and Lilias sat still, +evidently waiting to hear what he had to say, he seemed strangely at a +loss for words, and broke down several times in making a beginning. At +last he said: + +"Well, Mrs Blair, the short and the long of it is this. I have a +favour to ask from you. You see, it's dull enough down at my house at +this time of the year, and I find it long sitting by myself when the +bairns have gone home. I have a certain solace in my books, it's true; +but I begin to think there is some sense in the wise man's declaration, +that `much study is a weariness to the flesh.' At any rate, it comes to +that at my time of life. So I wish you would spare that laddie of yours +to me for awhile, and I'll promise you that what will be for my good +will not be for his ill. That's what I have to say." + +There was a moment's silence; and then Mrs Blair thanked him for his +proposal, and for the manner in which it had been made. It was very +kind in him, she said, to put the matter in that way, as though the +obligation would be on his side. But it would be a great interruption +to the quiet which she knew he valued so much, to have a lad like Archie +always coming and going about him, and she doubted whether it would be +right to accept his generous offer; though she feared the short days and +the distance by the road would keep Archie away from the school for a +few weeks at least. The master listened with great attention, and said: + +"To your first remark, Mrs Blair, ma'am, with all due deference, I must +say, I put it in that light because it's the true light, and I see not +well how I could put it in any other. And as for his being an +interruption, if I should find him so at any time I would but to bid him +hold his peace or go to his bed, or I could send him over to the manse +to Davie yonder. He'll be no interruption to him, I'll warrant. And as +to his biding at home, it must by no means be. He has just got well +begun in more things than one, and there is no saying what might be the +effect of putting a stop to it all. He might not take to his books so +well again. Not that I think that, either; but it would be an awful +pity to hinder him. He'll do himself and me credit yet, if he has the +chance." + +Lilias smiled at these praises of her brother, and Mrs Blair asked: + +"Really and truly, Mr Butler, apart from your wish to help him for his +father's sake, do you wish for your own sake to have the boy to bide +with you for awhile?" + +"Really and truly for my own sake. I consider the obligation on my +side. But just for the sake of argument, Mrs Blair, ma'am, we'll +suppose it to be otherwise. Do you mind the little house that once +stood in Pentlands Park, and how many of my mother's dark days your +presence brightened there? And do you not mind, when I was a reckless +laddie, well-nigh worsted in the battle of life, that first your father, +and then your brother, took me by the hand and warded off the sore blows +of poverty and neglect? And do you think I'm too bold in seeking an +opportunity to show that I didn't forget, though I can never repay? Is +it too great a favour for me to ask, Mrs Blair?" + +The master's voice had nearly failed him more than once while he was +speaking. He was very much in earnest; and to what he had said, Mrs +Blair could have only one reply. Turning to Lilias, she said: + +"Well, my dear, shall it be?" + +The master had, with a few exceptions, a sort of friendly contempt for +all womankind. With regard to "lassie bairns" there was _no_ exception; +and he was by no means pleased that the answer to his question should be +referred to one of these. But Lilias' answer appeased him. + +"Oh, yes,--surely, aunt. It will be much for Archie's good. And, +besides," she added, with a little hesitation, "I don't wonder that the +master wants Archie for his own sake." + +"A sensible-like lassie, that," said the master to himself, looking at +her with some such curiosity as he would have looked at a strange beetle +in his garden-path, "that is wise like." + +"Yes, if the master thought about Archie, as you do," said Mrs Blair. +"But have you counted the cost? It will be a sad lonely winter to you +without your brother, Lily." + +Lilias considered a moment, and drew a long breath. + +"But it will be so much better for him; and he will come home +sometimes." + +"That he shall," said the master, "at regular times, on which you shall +agree between you, and at no other,--that you need not be troubling +yourselves needlessly about him. And he shall come in time, too, that +there need be no waste of good eyesight watching for him." + +And so it was settled. But Archie was by no means so delighted with the +arrangement as Lilias had anticipated. He could hardly be persuaded +that he could not in the winter walk backwards and forwards over the +hills, as he had done in the fine days of summer and autumn. But when +he was fairly settled in his little closet in the schoolmaster's quiet +home, with a table full of books, and time to read them, and his friend +Davie coming and going at his pleasure, he settled down with great +content. + +He did not miss his sister as she missed him. Poor Lilias! Many and +many a time, during the first week of their separation, she asked +herself if she had indeed counted the cost. She accused herself of +selfishness in regretting a change which was so much for his good, and +strove by attention to her duties to quiet the pain at her heart. + +"I ought to be glad and thankful," said she to herself, again and +again,--"glad and thankful;" but the dull pain ached on, and the days +seemed like weeks; and when Saturday afternoon came at last, and Archie +rushed in, with a joyful shout, a few minutes before he was expected, +she surprised herself and him by a great flood of tears. + +"Lilias, my child, what ails you?" said her aunt, while Archie stood +gazing at her in silent consternation. + +It was some time before she found her voice to speak. + +"It's nothing, aunt; indeed it's nothing, Archie. I had no thought of +crying. But I think my tears have been gathering all the week, and the +sight of you made them run over in spite of me." + +"Lily," said Archie, gravely, "I won't go to the school again. You have +been wearying for me, Lily." + +It had been something more than "wearying,"--that dull pain that had +ached at Lilias' heart since they parted. It was like the mother's +unappeasable yearning for her lost darling. Her cheek seemed to have +grown pale and thin even in these six days. Archie stood with one hand +thrown over her neck, while with the other he pushed back the fair hair +that had fallen on her face, and his eyes looked lovingly and gravely +into hers. The tears still ran fast over her cheeks; but she forced +back the sobs that were ready to burst out again; and in a little while +she said, with lips that quivered while they smiled: + +"Nonsense, Archie! You must go to the school. I haven't wearied much: +have I, aunt? Everything has been just the same this week, except that +you didn't come home." + +"A woeful exception," said her aunt to herself; but aloud she said, +"Yes; just the same. We have missed you sadly; but we couldn't think of +keeping you at home on that account. How do you like biding with the +master?" + +"Oh, I liked it well, after the first night or two. I have been twice +at the manse, and Davie has been with me; and the master has more books +than I could read in years and years; and I have had a letter from John +Graham. It came with one to Davie." + +And soon Lilias was listening to his history of the week's events with +as much interest as he took in giving it. She strove by her +cheerfulness to make Archie forget her reception of him. Indeed, it did +not require a very great effort to be cheerful now. Her heart had been +wonderfully lightened by the shedding of the tears that had been +gathering all the week; and she soon laughed heartily over the merry +stories he had to tell about his sworn friend Davie Graham and the +master. + +But Archie did not forget. That night, as they stood by the rowan-tree, +looking down on the foaming waters beneath, he said: + +"Lily, I don't believe Davie Graham's sisters love him as you love me." + +"They wouldn't need. Davie Graham's not like you. Besides, they have +other brothers, and I have only you." + +"Yes; that may make a difference. But I'm sure I've been more trouble +to you than brothers generally are to their sisters. I wonder you don't +tire of it, Lily." + +"That's what makes me miss you so much. Oh, Archie! I thought the week +would never be done." + +"It can't be right for me to bide at Dunmoor, when you miss me so much, +Lily. I ought to give up the school for awhile, I think." + +But Lilias would not hear of such a thing. Stay from the school for her +sake! No, indeed. That would never do, when he needed to go so much, +and when she had been wishing for it for his sake so long! And, +besides, it would be as much for her good as his, in the end. She would +far rather have him a great scholar by-and-by than to have his company +now. + +"If Aunt Janet were only well again!" she added, after a little pause; +and a shadow passed over her face as she spoke. + +This was the cloud that had been gathering and darkening; and it was not +very long before that which Lilias had feared came upon her. Her aunt +grew worse and worse; and, when Christmas-time came round, she was not +able to leave her bed. Privations to which she had been little +accustomed during the greater part of her life were beginning to tell on +her now. At first she was only feeble and incapable of exertion; but +her illness soon assumed a more decided form, and a severe rheumatic +attack rendered her, for a time, quite helpless. She was always +cheerful, and strove to comfort Lilias by telling her that, though her +illness was painful, it was not dangerous, and when the spring came +round she might hope to be strong and well again. But months must pass +before then, and the heart of Lilias sickened at the thought of all her +aunt must suffer. Even Archie's absence came to seem but a small matter +in comparison with this greater trial. By every means in her power she +strove to soothe her sufferings; but, alas! it was little she could do, +and slowly the winter passed away. + +"Oh, so differently from the last!" thought Lilias, many a time. + +It was long a matter of earnest discussion between them whether the +school should be kept up through the winter, or not. Mr Blair was +fearful that it would be too much for the child; but, hoping day by day +to be better, and able to take her accustomed place among them, she +yielded to Lilias' entreaties, and consented that they should come for +awhile. + +Lilias made a new discovery about this time. After her aunt's illness +the housekeeping affairs fell altogether into her hands; and she was +startled to find how very small the sum was that must cover their +expenses from year's end to year's end. The trifle received from the +school-children, paltry as it was, seemed quite too precious to be given +up. Her aunt's comforts were few, but they must be fewer still without +this. No: the school must be kept up, at any cost of labour and pains +to her. + +"Let me just try it a while, aunt," she pleaded; "I am sure I can get on +with you to advise me; and the days will seem shorter with the bairns +coming and going." + +And so her aunt yielded, though only half convinced that she did right. +There is no better promoter of cheerfulness than constant and earnest +occupation; and so Lilias found it. She had no time during the day to +think of the troubles that seemed gathering over them, and at night she +was too weary to do so. But, though weary in body, her patience and +energy never flagged. Indeed, never were so many children so easily +taught and governed before. The gentle firmness of their young teacher +wrought wonders among them. Her grave looks were punishment enough for +the most unruly, and no greater reward of good behaviour could be given +than to be permitted to go on an errand or do her some other little +favour when school was over. + +But her chief dependence for help was on Elsie Ray. Her gratitude for +Lilias' kindness when she first came to the school was unbounded; and +she could not do too much to prove it. It was Elsie who brought in the +water from the well and the fuel from the heap. It was Elsie who went +far and near for anything which the varying appetite of the invalid +might crave. Lilias quite learnt to depend on her; and the day was +darker and longer than usual, that failed to bring Elsie to the school. + +Mrs Stirling's visits, too, became more frequent as the winter wore +away; and there was seldom a Saturday afternoon, be it raining or +shining, that failed to bring her to the cottage. Nor was she by any +means unwelcome there. For Nancy could be very helpful, when she willed +it; and, by some strange witchcraft or other, Lilias had crept into her +murmuring, though not unkind heart. It is true that she always came and +went with the same ominous shake of the head, and the same dismal +prophecy that, "unless she was much mistaken, Mrs Blair would never set +her foot to the ground again;" but she strove in various ways to soothe +the pain of the sufferer, and her strong arms accomplished many a task +that Lilias in her weakness must have left undone. Once, in Lilias' +absence from the cottage, she collected and carried off the used linen +of the family which had been accumulating for weeks, and quite resented +the child's exclamation of surprise and gratitude when she brought them +back done up in her very best style. "She had done it to please +herself, as the most of folks do favours; and there need be no such ado +made about it. If she had thought it a trouble, she would have left it +alone." + +She was never weary of suggesting new remedies for Mrs Blair's +complaint, and grumbled by the hour if each in turn had not what she +called a fair trial. Fortunately, her remedies were not of the "kill or +cure" kind. If they could do no good, they could do little harm; and +Mrs Blair was generally disposed to submit to a trial of them. + +In all her intercourse with Lilias there was a singular blending of +respectful tenderness with the grumbling sourness that had become +habitual to her. The child's unfailing energy and patience were a +source of never-failing admiration to her; yet she always spoke to her +as if she thought she needed a great deal of encouragement, and not a +little reproof and advice, to keep her in the right way. + +"You mustn't grumble, Lilias, my dear, that you have to bear the yoke in +your youth. I dare say you need all you're getting. Many a better +woman has had more to bear. We all have our share of trouble at one +time or another. Who knows but you may see prosperous days yet,--you +and your aunt together? Though indeed that's more than I think," she +added, with the old ominous shake of the head; "but, grumble here or +grumble there, it will make little difference in the end." + +Lilias would listen sometimes with a smile, sometimes with tears in her +wistful eyes, but always with a respect which was all the more grateful +to Nancy that it was not often given by those on whom she bestowed her +advice. + +But notwithstanding the kindness of friends, and (what Lilias valued +even more) the weekly visits of Archie, the afternoon walks, and the +long evening spent in talking over all that the week had brought to +each, the winter passed away slowly and heavily. To the children in the +school, Lilias always appeared in all respects the same; as indeed she +was during school-hours. But when the little ones had gone home, and +her household duties were all over, when there was no immediate call for +exertion, her strength and spirits flagged. Sitting in the dim light of +the peat fire, her weary eyes would close, and her work would fall upon +her lap. It is true, the lowest tone of her aunt's voice would awaken +her again, as indeed it would at any hour of the night; but, waking +still weary and unrefreshed, no wonder that the power to step lightly +and speak cheerfully was sometimes more than she could command. She was +always gentle and mindful of her aunt's comfort; but as the spring drew +near she grew quiet and grave, and her laugh, which had been such +pleasant music in the cottage, was seldom heard. + +"You never sing now, Lily," said her aunt, one night, as Lilias was +busily but silently putting things to rights after the children had gone +home. + +"Don't I?" said Lilias, standing still. + +"Well, maybe not, though I had not thought about it. I am waiting for +the birds to begin again, I suppose; and that won't be long now." + +But spring seemed long in coming. March passed over, and left matters +no better in the cottage. Indeed, it was the worst time of all. The +damp days and bleak winds aggravated Mrs Blair's illness, and increased +her suffering. The young lambs and calves at home needed Elsie's care, +and she could seldom come now; and Lilias' burden grew heavier every +day. Two rainy Saturdays in succession had presented Archie's coming +home; and time seemed to move on leaden wings. + +"You have need of patience, Lily," said her aunt one night, as the child +seated herself on a low stool and laid her head down on the side of the +bed. + +"Have I, aunt?" said she, raising herself quickly, for she thought her +aunt's words were intended to convey reproof. + +"Yes; and God is giving it to you, my child. It ought to be some +comfort to you, love, that you are doing good in the weary life you are +leading. You are not living in vain, my child." + +"I am quite happy, aunt," said Lilias, coming near, and speaking in a +low, wondering voice. + +"Blessed with the peace _He_ gives His own through His dear Son our +Saviour: thank God for that!" said her aunt, as she returned her caress. + +March passed and April too, and May came warm and beautiful, at last. +It brought the blessing so earnestly longed for by the weary Lilias,-- +comparative health to her aunt. Although she was not quite well yet, +she was no longer confined to her bed; and, with some assistance, could +walk about the house, and even in the little garden, now bright with +violets and daisies. "She had aged wonderfully," Mrs Stirling said; as +indeed she had. Lilias could see that, but she had great faith in the +"bonny summer days," and thought that now their troubles were nearly at +an end. + +The return of spring had not made the schoolmaster willing to part with +Archie, and he was seldom at home more than once or twice a week. But, +though Lilias still missed him, she had long ago persuaded herself that +it would be selfishness on her part to wish it otherwise. It was for +Archie's good; and that was more than enough to reconcile her to his +continued absence. + +But the pleasant May days did not make Lilias her old self again. She +did not begin to sing with the birds, though she tried sometimes. The +old burden was there, and she could not. Often she accused herself of +ingratitude, and wondered what ailed her, that she could not be so +cheerful as she used to be. The feeling of weariness and depression did +not wait now till the children had gone home. Sometimes it came upon +her as she sat in the midst of them, and the hum of their voices would +die away into a dull murmur, and she would fall into a momentary +forgetfulness of time and place. Sometimes it came upon her as an +inexpressible longing for rest and quiet, and to get away from it all +for a little while. + +Her spirits were unequal; and it required a daily and unceasing effort +to go about quietly, as she used to do. More than once she startled +herself and others by sudden and violent bursts of weeping, for which, +as she truly said, she could give no reason. In vain she expostulated +with herself; in vain she called herself ungrateful and capricious. The +weary weight would not be reasoned away. + +At length the knowledge that she was overtired, and not so well as +usual, relieved her heart a little; but not very long. She was ill; and +that was the cause of all her wretched feelings. She was not selfish +and ungrateful. + +She would be her old self again when she grew better. + +Yes; but would she ever grow better? and when? and how? Never in the +school. She knew now that she had been doing too much for her +strength,--that the longing to get away from the noise and turmoil did +not arise from dislike of her work, but from inability to perform it. +And yet, what could she do even now? Her aunt was not able to take her +old place in the school. Must it be given up? They needed the small +sum it brought in as much as ever they had done, and more. Archie was +fast outgrowing the clothes so carefully preserved, and where could he +get more? And there were other things, comforts which her aunt needed, +which must be given up, unless the school could be kept on. + +She could not go to service now. She could not leave her aunt. If she +could only get something to do that could be done at home. Or if she +could only be a herd-girl, like Elsie Ray, or keep the sheep of some of +the farmers, so that she might come home at night. Then she would soon +get strong, and, maybe, have the children again after the harvest. Oh, +if she only had some one to tell her what to do! The thought more than +once came into her mind to write to Dr Gordon; but she did not. He +could not advise her. He could help them in no other way than to send +them money. No: something else must be tried first. Oh, if she only +knew what to do! + +It would not have solaced Lilias much to know that the very same +thoughts were hourly in the mind of her aunt. None of Mrs Blair's +friends knew the exact amount of her yearly income. None of them knew +how small the sum was that the widow's little family had to maintain +them, or imagined the straits to which they were sometimes reduced. +Mrs Blair blamed herself for not having done before what now seemed +inevitable. She ought to have asked assistance, alms she called it, +before it came to this pass with them; and yet she had done what she +thought was for the best. She had hoped that her illness would not last +long,--that when spring came all would go on as usual again. + +But this could not be now. She had watched Lilias with great anxiety. +She had seen the struggle which it had sometimes cost her to get through +the days; and she knew that it could not go on long. Her own strength +came back, but slowly. She could not take Lilias' place; and the +children must go. Some change must be made, even if it involved the +necessity of Lilias' leaving her for a while. Indeed, it might have +been better, she sometimes thought, if she had never sought to keep the +child with her. It would be hard to part from her now. + +Lilias, in the meantime, had come to the same resolution. The school +must be given up and she must tell her aunt and Archie; but first she +must think of something else, weeding, or herding, or going out to +service. Suddenly a new thought presented itself. It would not have +won for her much credit for wisdom in the parish, this idea of hers; but +Lilias only wondered that it had not occurred to her before. + +"I'll ask Mrs Stirling's advice. If she's not down before Saturday, +I'll go up and speak to her. She'll surely know of something that I can +do." + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +A FRIEND IN NEED. + +Mrs Stirling's cottage stood not far from the high-road that leads to +Dunmoor, at the distance of a mile and a half from Kirklands. It was +Nancy's own, and though humble and small, it was yet a very comfortable +abode; for her reputation for neatness and order was as well established +as her reputation for grumbling. There were no evidences of a refined +taste about the place; but perfect order prevailed. There was not a +weed in the garden without, nor a speck in the house within. Every +article made of wood was as white as soap and sand or as bright as +turpentine and wax and much rubbing could make it; and every piece of +metal was dazzling to behold. + +There were some relics of former grandeur, too; for Mrs Stirling had +not always lived in so humble a home. Her husband had been prosperous +in a small way, but the property he left had been sadly mismanaged after +his death, or there would have been a larger portion for his widow. But +she had enough to supply her simple wants; and there were those among +her neighbours so uncharitable as to say that she enjoyed the +opportunity for murmuring which its loss afforded, more than she could +have enjoyed the possession of twice her means. + +"Mrs Stirling might be as happy as the day is long, with nobody to +trouble her from one year's end to the other," was the frequent remark +of many a toil-worn mother, fighting with poverty and cares, in the +midst of many children. Yet none of them would have changed her life of +care for Nancy's solitary comfort. Not that Nancy did not enjoy life in +her way. She enjoyed greatly putting things to rights and keeping +things in order. She enjoyed her garden and her neighbours' +good-natured envy on account of its superiority to their own. And, much +more than people supposed, she enjoyed doing a good turn to any one who +really needed it. It is true that her favours were, as a general thing, +conferred ungraciously; but even those who had the least patience with +her infirmities of temper availed themselves of her good offices, +acknowledging that, after all, "her bark was worse than her bite." + +During the last few months of their intercourse, Lilias had seen +comparatively little of Mrs Stirling's characteristic ungraciousness, +and she felt very grateful to her for her many kindnesses during the +winter. Unconsciously to herself, in seeking her advice she was making +the return which her friend could best appreciate. + +Mrs Stirling was standing at the door, with her water-bucket in her +hand, as Lilias came in sight that Saturday afternoon. + +"Eh! yon's Lilias Elder coming up the hill. What can bring her here? I +don't know the day when I have seen her so far from home. Eh, but she's +a bonny, genteel little lassie! There's no doubt of that." + +It could not have been her apparel that called forth Mrs Stirling's +audible acknowledgment of Lilias' gentility; for her black frock was +faded and scant, and far too short, though the last tuck had been let +down in the skirt; and her little straw bonnet was not of this nor of +last year's fashion. But Nancy's declaration was not a mistake, for all +these disadvantages. Her greeting was characteristic. + +"What made you come up the hill at that pace, you thoughtless lassie? +Anybody to see you might think you had breath enough and to spare; and, +if I'm not mistaken, you need it all." + +Lilias laughed as she shook hands, and then sat down wearily on the +door-step. + +"Ah, sit down and rest yourself. You'll be going to meet your brother, +or, maybe, to take your tea at the manse?" said Mrs Stirling, +inquiringly. + +"No: Archie's not coming home till the evening. He's going to Broyra +with Davie Graham. I'm going no farther to-day. I came to see you, +Mrs Stirling. I want you to advise me." + +Nancy would not acknowledge to herself, and certainly she would not +acknowledge to Lilias, that she was a good deal surprised and flattered +by this announcement; and she merely said: + +"Well, sit still and rest yourself first. I'm going down to the burn to +get a drop of soft water to make my tea. It makes it best. Sit still +and rest; for you look weary." + +Weary she was, too weary even to take in the lovely scene before her, +the hills and valleys in their fresh May garments. Far away on the +dusty highway a traveller was approaching; and her eyes fastened +themselves mechanically upon him. Sometimes he lingered and looked back +over the way he had come, and then hurried on, as though his business +would not brook delay. Still watching him as he advanced, Lilias idly +wondered whence he came, and whither he was going, and whether it was +hope or fear that urged him to such speed. + +Then she thought of the many travellers on the highway of life, weary +and ready to faint with the journey; and, closing her eyes, she strove +to send a thought over her own uncertain future. She could see only a +little way before her. The school must be given up; but what was to +come after, she could not tell. She could think of no plan to bring +about what she most wished--the power to do something and yet stay at +home with her aunt. Change and separation must come, and she could not +look beyond these; and then she sighed, as she had done many a time +before. + +"Oh, if I were only strong and well again!" So occupied was she with +her thoughts that she had not noticed the return of Mrs Stirling from +the brook, and was only made aware of it when she put a cut-glass goblet +filled with water in her hand. A very beautiful goblet it was, no doubt +equal to the one for which the Roman emperor, in the story, paid a small +fortune; and you may be sure it was a great occasion in Mrs Stirling's +eyes that brought it from the cupboard in the corner. No lips save +those of the minister had touched the brim for many a month. + +But Lilias was too much occupied with her own thoughts to notice the +unwonted honour; and, strange to say, the slight was not resented. +Placing the glass in Lilias's hand, Mrs Stirling went into the house +again. + +As Lilias raised it to her lips, her eyes fell again upon the +approaching stranger toiling along the dusty road, and her hand was +arrested. He had again slackened his pace, and his face was turned full +upon Lilias as he drew near. Upon it care or grief, or it might be +crime, had left deep traces. Now it wore a wild and anxious look that +startled Lilias, as, instead of passing along the high-road, he rapidly +came up the garden-path towards her. + +"Can you tell me if I am on the high-road to Kirklands?" he asked, as he +drew near. + +"Yes; go straight on. It is not much more than a mile from this place." + +He did not turn to go when she had answered him, but gazed for a moment +earnestly into her face, and then said: + +"Perhaps you can tell me--But no: I will not ask. I shall know the +worst soon enough." + +The look of pain deepened in his face, and his very lips grew pale as he +spoke. + +"You are ill!" exclaimed Lilias, eagerly offering him the water she held +in her hand. He drank a little, and, giving back the glass, thanked her +and went away. But before he had gone far he turned again, and, coming +to Lilias, said in a low, hoarse voice: + +"Child, I see the look of heaven's peace on your face. Your wish must +bring good to one like me. Bid me God-speed." + +"God speed you!" said Lilias, reverently, and wondering much. "And God +avert the evil that you dread!" + +She watched while he continued in sight, forgetting, for the time, her +own troubles in pity for his. + +"There are so many troubles in life," she thought; "and each one's own +seems worst to bear. When will it all end?" + +Poor, drooping Lily! She had sat so long in the shadow of care that she +was in danger of forgetting that there were lightsome places on the +earth; and "When will it end?" came often to her lips now. Not that she +was growing impatient under it; but she felt herself so weak to do or to +endure. + +"If I only were strong and well again! If God would only make me well +again, and show me what to do!" + +Mrs Stirling's voice startled her at last. + +"Come into the house, Lilias, my dear. There's a cold wind creeping +round the hill, and the ground is damp yet. You mustn't sit longer +there." + +She placed a seat for her in the bright little kitchen. + +"I won't put you into the parlour, for a fire's pleasant yet, May though +it be. Sit down here, and I'll be through with my baking in a few +minutes." + +The kettle was already singing on the hearth, and fresh cakes were +toasting at the fire. After the usual Saturday tidying-up, the room was +"like a new pin;" and Lilias's eyes expressed her admiration as she +looked, about her. Nancy hastened her work and finished it, and, as she +seated herself on the other side of the hearth, she said: + +"Well, my dear, what were you thinking to ask me?" + +In a few words Lilias told her all her trouble: how, though the spring +had come, her aunt was by no means well yet, nor able to take charge of +the school again; how she sometimes felt she was growing ill herself, at +least she was sometimes so weary that she feared she could not go on +long. Indeed, she tried not to be weary, but she could not help it. +The feeling would come upon her, and then she grew dazed and stupid +among the children; and she must try and get something else to do. This +was what she wanted to be advised about. + +By a strong effort, in her capacity of adviser, Nancy was able to keep +back the words that came to the tip of her tongue:--"I knew it. Anybody +might have seen the upshot. To put a lassie like that to do the work of +a strong woman! What could one expect?" + +She did not speak aloud, however, but rose and mended the fire under the +tea-kettle, asking, as she sat down again: + +"And what are you thinking of doing, my dear?" + +"It's not that I'm really ill," continued Lilias, eagerly. "I think +it's because I have been within doors so much. If I could get something +to do in the open air, I should soon be as well as ever again. I can't +go to service now, because I must stop at home with my aunt at night. +She can't be left. But I thought if I could be a herd-girl like Elsie +Ray, or get weeding to do, or light field-work, or something--" And she +looked so eagerly and so wistfully that Nancy was fain to betake herself +to mending the fire again. For there was a strange, remorseful feeling +stirring not unkindly at Nancy's heart. To use her own words, she "had +taken just wonderfully to this old-fashioned child." Her patience, her +energy, her unselfishness, her devotion to her aunt, had ever excited +her admiration and respect. But that there was "a good thick layer of +pride" for all these good qualities to rest upon, Nancy never doubted. + +"And why not? Who has better right? The lassie is bonny and wise, and +has good blood and a good name. Few have so much to be proud of. And +if Mrs Blair thinks it's more becoming in her brother's daughter to +teach children the catechism than to go out to common service, who can +blame her that mind her youth and middle age?" + +Indeed, it had always been a matter of congratulation to Mrs Stirling +that this "leaven of pride" prevented Lilias's absolute perfection; but +now, to see "that delicate lassie, so bonny and gentle, more fit for the +manse parlour or the drawing-room at Pentlands than any other place,"-- +to see her so utterly unmindful of pride or station, wishing so eagerly, +for the sake of those she loved, to become a herd-girl or a +field-labourer, quite disarranged all Nancy's ideas. By another great +effort, she checked the expression of her feelings, and asked: + +"And what does your aunt say to all this?" + +"Oh, I have said nothing to her yet. It would only trouble her; and if +I can get nothing else to do, I must keep the children till the +`harvest-play' comes. That won't be so very long now." + +"But, dear me, lassie! it must be that you have awful little to live on, +if the few pence you could earn would make a difference," said Nancy, +forgetting, in her excitement, her resolution to say nothing rashly. +"Surely it's not needful that you should slave yourself that way." + +"My aunt would not like me to speak about it. But I ought to do all I +can; and I would like herding best." + +Nancy's patience was ebbing fast. + +"Well, lass, you've sought advice from me, and you shall get it. You're +just as fit for herding as you are for breaking stones. Now, just be +quiet, my dear. What do you ken about herding, but what you have learnt +beneath Elsie Ray's plaid on a summer's afternoon? And what good could +you do your aunt,--away before four in the morning, and not home till +dark at night, as you would need to be?" + +The last stroke told. + +"I could do little, indeed," thought Lilias; but she could not speak, +and soon Nancy said: + +"As for light field-labour, if such a thing was to be found in the +countryside, which is not my thought, your aunt would never hear of such +a thing. Field-labourers canna choose their company; and they are but a +rough set at best. Weeding might do better. If you could have got into +the Pentlands gardens, now. But, dear me! It just shows that there's +none exempt from trouble, be they high or be they low. Folk say the +Laird o' Pentlands is in sore trouble, and the sins of the father are to +be visited on the children. The Lady of Pentlands and her bairns are +going to foreign parts, where they needn't think shame to be kenned as +puir folk. There will be little done in the Pentlands gardens this +while, I doubt. There's Broyra, but that is a good five miles away: you +could never go there and come back at night." + +"But surely there's something that I can do?" said Lilias, entreatingly. + +"Yes, there's just one thing you can do. You can have patience, and sit +still, and see what will come out of this. If I were you, and you were +me, you could, I don't doubt, give me many a fine precept and promise +from the Scriptures to that effect. So just take them to yourself, and +bide still a while, till you see." + +"I'll have to go on with the school yet," said Lilias, quietly. + +"No, no, my lass: you'll do no such thing as that, unless you're tired +of your life. You have been at that work over-long already, or I'm +mistaken. Go into the house and look in the glass. Your face will +never be paler than it is at this moment, Lilias Elder, my dear." + +"I'm tired," said Lilias, faintly, her courage quite forsaking her, and +the tears, long kept back, finding their way down her cheeks. + +"Tired! I'll warrant you're tired; and me, like an old fool, talking +away here, when the tea should have been ready long since." And Nancy +dashed into her preparations with great energy. The tea was made in the +little black teapot, as usual; but it was the best tray, and Nancy's +exquisite china, that were laid on the mahogany stand brought from the +parlour for the occasion; for Nancy seemed determined to do her great +honour. By a strong effort, Lilias checked her tears after the first +gush, and sat watching the movements and listening to the rather +unconnected remarks of her hostess. + +"It's not often they're taken down, except to wash," she said, as with a +snowy napkin she dusted the fairy-like cream-pot. "There's but few folk +of consideration coming to see the like of me. Young Mr Crawford +doesn't seem to think that I belong to him,--maybe because I go so often +to Dunmoor kirk. He hasn't darkened my door but once yet, and he's not +like to do it now. They say he's to be married to one of Fivie's +daughters; and I mind Fivie a poor herd-laddie. Eh me! but the Lord +brings down one and puts up another! To think of the Lady of Pentlands +having to leave yon bonny place! Who would have thought it? This is +truly a changeful scene. Folk must have their share of trouble at one +time or other of their lives. There was never a truer word said than +that." + +"Yes," said Lilias, softly: "it is called a pilgrimage,--a race,--a +warfare." + +Nancy caught the words. + +"Ay, that's a good child, applying the Scripture, as you ought to do. +But you can do that at your leisure, you know. Sit by the table and +take your tea. I dare say you need it." + +And indeed Lilias, faint and weary, did need it. She thought she could +not swallow a crumb; but she was mistaken. The tea was delicious; for +Mrs Stirling was a judge of tea, and would tolerate no inferior +beverage. + +"I'm willing to pay for the best; and the best I must have," was the +remark that generally followed her brief but emphatic grace before meat; +and it was not omitted this time. "It will do you good, Lilias, my +dear." + +And it did do her good. The honey and cakes were beyond praise, and +Lilias ate and was refreshed. When the tea was over, Mrs Stirling +rather abruptly introduced the former subject of conversation. + +"And what were you going to do with your brother when you made your fine +plans for the summer?" she asked. + +"Archie's at the school, you know," answered Lilias, shrinking rather +from Nancy's tone and manner than from her words. + +"Yes; he's at the school just now. But he wasn't going to stop at the +school, surely, when you went to the herding?" + +"Oh yes; he is far better at the school." + +"Ay, he's better at the school than playing. But wherefore should not +he go to the weeding or the herding as well as you?" + +"Archie! Why, he's but a child! What could he do?" + +"And what are you but a child?" asked Nancy, smiling. "I'm thinking +there is little over the twelve months between you." + +"But Archie never was strong. It would never do to expose him to all +kinds of weather or to fatigue. Don't you mind such a cripple as he was +when we came here? You used to think he wouldn't live long. Don't you +mind?" + +"Yes, I mind; but he did live, and thrive too; and he's the most +life-like of the two to-day, I'm thinking. Fatigue, indeed! and he +ranging over the hills with that daft laddie Davie Graham, and playing +at the ball by the hour together! What should ail him, I wonder?" + +"But even if Archie were strong and well, and could gain far more than I +can, it would yet be far better for him to be at the school. A man can +do so little in the world if he has no education; and now is Archie's +time to get it." + +"Well, it may be. And when's your time coming?" asked Nancy, drily. + +"Oh, it is quite different with me," said Lilias, with a feeble attempt +at a laugh. "A woman can slip through the world quietly, you know. I +shan't need learning as Archie will. And, besides, I can do a great +many things; and I can learn though I don't go to the school." + +"Learn, indeed! and slip through the world quietly!" exclaimed Mrs +Stirling, with an expression of mingled pity and contempt. "These may +be your doctrines, but they're not mine. But it's easy seen what will +be the upshot of this. It's just your aunt and your father over again. +She would have laid her head beneath Alex Elder's feet, if it would have +pleasured him; and you are none behind her. Such ways are neither for +your good nor his. There are plenty of folk that'll say to-day that +your father would have been a stronger man if he hadn't been so much +spared as a laddie." + +"If Archie grows up to be such a man as my father was, I shall have no +more to wish for him!" exclaimed Lilias, rising, with more of spirit in +her voice and manner than Mrs Stirling had ever witnessed there before. + +"Eh, sirs! did you ever hear the like of that in all your born days?" +(lifting her hands as if appealing to an invisible audience). "As +though I would say a word to make light of her father! It's well-known +there were few left like him in the countryside when he went away. And +for her to put herself in such a passion! Not that I'm caring, Lilias, +my dear. I think it has done you good. I haven't seen you with such a +colour in your face this good while. But it ill becomes you to be +offended with the like of me." + +"I'm not angry. I didn't mean to be angry," said Lilias, meekly enough +now; "but I can't bear to think you should suppose I would do anything +that is not for Archie's good. I'm sure I wish to do what is right." + +"I'm as sure of that as you are," said Nancy; "but Lilias, my dear, you +must mind that it's not the sapling that has the closest shelter that +grows to be the strongest tree. With you always to think and do for +him, your brother would never learn to think and do for himself. It is +not real kindness to think first of him. You must let him bear his +share of the burden." + +"But he's such a child," said Lilias; "and he was never strong, +besides." + +"Now, only hear her!" exclaimed Nancy, again appealing to an invisible +audience. "You would think, to hear her speak, she was three-score at +least. Lilias Elder, hear what I'm saying to you. You are just taking +the best way to ruin this brother of yours, with your petting. All the +care that you are lavishing on him now, he'll claim as his right before +long, and think himself well worthy of it, too. Do you not wonder +sometimes, that he is so blithe-like, when you have so much to make you +weary? I doubt the laddie is overfull of himself." + +"You are wrong, Mrs Stirling!" exclaimed Lilias, the indignant colour +again flushing her face. "Archie is not full of himself. He would do +anything for my aunt or me. And why should he not be blithe? I'm +blithe, too, when he is at home; and, besides, he doesna know all." + +The thought of what that "all" was--the struggle, the exhaustion, the +forced cheerfulness--made her cheek grow pale; and she sat down again, +saying to herself that Nancy was right, and that, for a while at least, +she must rest. + +"No; and he'll never ken as much as is for his good, if it depends on +you. But he'll hear something ere he's many days older." + +"Mrs Stirling," said Lilias, rising, and speaking very quietly now, +"you must not meddle between me and my brother. He is all I have got; +and I know him best. He never was meant for a herd-boy or a +field-labourer. He must bide at the school; and he'll soon be fit for +something better; and can you not see that will be as much for my good +as his? I must just have patience and wait; and you are not to think +ill of Archie." + +"Me think ill of him! No, no; I think he's a fine laddie, as his father +was before him, and that makes it all the more a pity that he should be +spoiled. But if you'll promise to be a good bairn, and have patience +till you are rested and quite strong again, and say no more about your +fine plans till then, I'll neither make nor meddle between you. Must +you go? Well, wait till I cover the fire with a wet peat, and I'll go +down the brae with you. I dare say you are all right; your aunt will be +wearying for you." + +As Nancy went bustling about, Lilias seated herself again upon the +door-step. The scene was changed since she sat there before; but it was +not less lovely with the long shadows upon it than it was beneath the +bright sunshine. It was very sweet and peaceful. The never-silent +brook babbled on closely by, but all other sounds seemed to come from a +distance. The delicate fringes of young birches waved to and fro with a +gentle, beckoning motion; but not a rustle nor a sigh was heard. + +Yes, it was very sweet and peaceful; and as she let her eyes wander over +the scene, Lilias had a vague feeling of guilt upon her in being so out +of tune with it all. Even in the days when she and Archie used to sit +waiting, waiting for their weary mother it had not been so bad. She +wondered why everything seemed so changed to her. + +"I suppose it is because I'm not very well. I mind how weary and +restless Archie used to be. I must have patience till I grow stronger. +And maybe something will happen that I'm not thinking about, just as +Aunt Janet came to us then. There are plenty of ways beyond my +planning; and the Lord has not forgotten us, I'm sure of that. I must +just wait. There is nothing else I can do. There! I won't let another +tear come to-night, if I can help it." + +She did her best to help it, for Mrs Stirling came bustling out again, +and they set off down the brae. She had leisure to help it, too; for +from the moment the great door-key was hidden in the thatch, till they +paused beside the stepping-stones, she did not need to speak a word. +Nancy had all the talk to herself, and rambled on from one thing to +another, never pausing for an answer, till they stood beside the brook. +Here Nancy was to turn back. + +"And now, Lilias, my dear, you'll mind what I have been saying to you, +and that you have promised to have patience? It winna be easy. You +have ay been doing for your aunt and your brother; and the more you had +to do the better you liked it. But it's one thing to do, and it's +another thing to sit with your hands tied and see them needing the help +you canna give. I doubt you may have a sorer heart to carry about with +you than you have kenned of yet. No, that I'm feared for you in the +end. And, though it's no pleasant thing to ask favours, I have that +faith in you that I would come to you, and wouldna fear to be denied. I +ken you would have more pleasure in giving than in withholding; and I +would take a gift from you as freely as I ken it would be freely given." + +She paused a moment, and Lilias tried to say that indeed she might trust +her, for it would give her more pleasure than she had words to tell, to +be able to do anything for so kind a friend. + +"As to that, we'll say nothing," said Nancy, drily. But suddenly, +changing her tone and manner, she added, "What I have to say is this. +You'll not refuse to me what I wouldna refuse to you, you that are far +wiser and better than I am, or ever expect to be? What's the use of +having friends if you canna offer them a helping hand in their time of +need? And mind, I'm no giving it," she added, opening her hands and +showing three golden sovereigns. "There's no fear but I'll get them +back with interest. There's nine-and-twenty more where these came from, +in the china teapot in the press; though that's neither here nor there. +And, Lilias, my dear, no soul need ever know." The last words were +spoken beseechingly. + +Lilias did not refuse the gift in words. She had no words at her +command. But she shut Nancy's fingers back upon the gold, and, as she +did so, she stooped and touched the brown wrinkled hand with her lips. + +"Indeed, it is not pride," she said, at last. "You must not think it's +pride. But I am only a child; and it is my aunt who must accept and +thank you for your kindness." + +Nancy's face was a sight to see. At first she could have been angry; +but her look changed and softened strangely at the touch of Lilias's +lips upon her hand. + +"My dear," said she gently, "it's easy to say `my aunt,' but it is you +who have borne the burden for her this while, poor helpless body!" + +"Yes," said Lilias, eagerly. "Just because she is helpless, we must +consider her the more; and she might not be pleased at my speaking to +you first. But if we really need it, we will come to you; for you are a +true friend. And you won't be angry?" she added, wistfully, as she held +out her hand for good-bye. + +"Angry with you! My little gentle lammie!" + +Her tones, so unlike Nancy's usually sharp accents, brought back the +child's tears with a rush, and she turned and ran away. Nancy stood +watching her as she went over the stepping-stones and up the bank, and +she tried to walk quietly on. But as soon as she was out of sight she +ran swiftly away, that she might find a hiding-place where she could cry +her tears out without danger of being seen. + +"It's the clearing-shower, I think; and I must get it over before I go +home. If Archie were to see me crying, I should have to tell him all; +and I'm sure I don't know what would happen then." + +As the thought passed through her mind, a footstep sounded on the rocky +pathway, and her heart leaped up at the sound of her brother's voice. +In a moment he was close beside her. She might have touched him with +her outstretched hand. But the last drops of the clearing-shower were +still falling. + +"And I'm not going to spoil his pleasant Sabbath with my tears," she +said to herself. So she lay still on the brown heather, quite unseen in +the deepening gloaming. + +"Lily!" cried Archie, pausing to listen--"Lily!" He grasped a branch of +the rowan-tree, and swung himself down into the torrent's bed. "Lily! +Are you here, Lily?" + +She listened till the sound of his footsteps died away, and then swung +herself down as he had done. Dipping her handkerchief into the water of +the burn, she said to herself, as she wiped the tear-stains from her +face, "I'll be all the brighter to-morrow for this summer shower." And +she laughed softly to herself as she followed the sound of her brother's +voice echoing back through the glen. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN. + +"I have stayed too late. They'll be wondering what has kept me," said +Archie to himself, as he saw the firelight gleaming from the +cottage-window. "I wonder where Lily can be, that she didn't come to +meet me? I wonder if anything has happened?" + +Something had happened. He paused a moment at the door to listen, as a +strange voice reached his ear. It was a man's voice. Going in softly, +he saw his aunt in her accustomed seat, and close beside her, with his +head bowed down on his hands, sat a stranger. There was a strange look, +too, on his aunt's face, the boy thought, and the tears were running +down over her cheeks. Wondering and anxious, he silently approached +her. + +"Archie, are you come home?" said she, holding out her hand to him as he +drew near. "Hugh, this is your uncle's son. Archie, this is your +cousin Hugh come home again." + +With a cry Archie sprang forward--not to take his cousin's offered hand, +but to clasp him round the neck; and, trembling like a leaf, the +returned wanderer held him in a close embrace. + +"I knew you would come back," said Archie at last through his tears. "I +always told Lilias you would be sure to come back again.--Oh, Aunt +Janet, are you not glad?--And you'll never go away again? Oh, I was +sure you would come home soon!" + +Even his mother had not received her prodigal without some questioning, +and the sudden clasping of Archie's arms about his neck, the perfect +trust of the child's heart, was like balm to the remorseful tortures of +Hugh Blair, and great drops from the man's eyes mingled with the boy's +happy tears. + +"Archie," said his aunt after a little time, "who spoke to you of your +cousin Hugh?" + +"Oh, many a one," answered Archie, as he gently stroked his cousin's +hair. "Donald Ross, and the Muirlands shepherds, and Mrs Stirling." +And then he added, in a hushed voice, "Lilias heard you speak his name +in your prayers often, when you thought her sleeping." + +Hugh Blair groaned in bitterness of spirit. The thought of his mother's +sleepless nights of prayer for him revealed more of the agony of all +those years of waiting than her lips could ever utter. He thought of +this night and that in his career of reckless folly, and said to +himself: "It may have been then or there that my name was on her lips. +O God, judge me not in Thine anger!" + +The words did not pass his lips, but the look he turned to his mother's +face was a prayer for pardon, and she strove to smile as she said +hopefully, "It is all past now, my son. God did not forget us--blessed +be His name!" + +"And Lily!" exclaimed Archie, starting up at last. "Lily! where are +you? Oh, will she not be glad?" + +"I am here, Archie. What has happened?" said Lilias at the door. + +"Cousin Hugh has come home again," he whispered, drawing her forward; +and then she saw the stranger who had taken the water from her hand. He +knew her, too, as the child who had bidden him "God-speed!" + +"Ah! is this the wee white Lily of Glen Elder?" he said softly. + +Lilias's greeting was very quiet. + +"I am glad you are come home again, Cousin Hugh," said she, as she gave +him her hand; and then she looked at her aunt. + +"God has been better to me than my fears. He has given me the desire of +my heart--blessed be His name!" whispered Mrs Blair, as Lilias bent +over her. + +All that it is needful to give here of Hugh Blair's story may be given +in a few words. He had not enlisted as a soldier, as had been at first +believed. But, in an hour of great misery and shame, he had gone away +from home, leaving behind him debt and dishonour, fully resolved never +to set foot in his native land again till he had retrieved his fortunes +and redeemed his good name. + +To redeem one's good name is easily resolved upon, but not so easily +accomplished. He took with him, to the faraway land to which he had +exiled himself, the same hatred of restraint, the same love of sinful +pleasures, that had been his bane at home. It is true he left the +companions who had led him astray and encouraged him in his foolish +course; but, alas! there are in all lands evil-doers enough to hinder +the well-doing of those who have need to mend their ways. He sinned +much, and suffered much, before he found a foothold for himself in the +land of strangers. + +Many a mother's prayers have followed a son into just such scenes of +vice and misery as he passed through before God's messenger, in the +shape of sore sickness, found him. Alone in a strange land, he lay for +weeks dependent on the unwilling charity of strangers. The horrors of +that fearful illness, the dreariness of that slow convalescence, could +not be told. Helpless, homeless, friendless, with no memories of the +past which his follies had not embittered, no hopes for the future which +he dared to cherish, it was no wonder that he stood on the brink of +despair. + +But he was not forsaken utterly. When he was ready to perish, a +countryman of his own found him, and, for his country's sake, befriended +him. He took him from the poisoned air of a tropical city away to the +country, amid whose hills and slopes reigns perpetual spring; and here, +under the influences of a well-ordered home, he regained health both of +body and of mind, and found also in his countryman and benefactor a firm +and faithful friend. + +Now, indeed, he began life anew. Bound by many ties of gratitude to his +employer and friend, he strove to do his duty, and to honour the trust +reposed in him; and he did not strive in vain. During the years that +followed, he became known as an honourable and a successful man; and +when at last, partly for purposes of business and partly with a view to +the re-establishment of his health, he determined to return home for a +time, he was comparatively a man of means. + +He had all this time been doing one wrong and foolish thing, however. +He had kept silence towards his mother. He had not forgotten her. He +made many a plan, and dreamed many a dream, of the time when, with all +stains wiped from his name and his life, he would return to make her +forget all that was painful in the past. He had never thought of her +all these years but as the honoured and prosperous mistress of Glen +Elder. It had never come into his mind that, amid the chances and +changes of life, she might have to leave the place which had been the +home of her youth and her middle age. + +When he returned, to find a stranger in his mother's place, it was a +terrible shock. All that he could learn concerning her was that she had +had no choice but to give up the farm, and that on leaving it she had +found a humble but welcome shelter in a neighbouring county; but whether +she was there still, or whether she was even alive, they could not tell +him. + +As he stood before the closed door of what had once been his home, it +seemed to him that a mark more fearful than that of Cain was upon him. +Heart-sick with remorse, he turned away. Not daring to make further +inquiries, lest he might learn the worst, he went on, past familiar +places, with averted eyes, feeling in his misery that the guilt of his +mother's death must rest upon his sinful soul unless he might hear her +living lips pronounce the pardon of which he knew himself to be +unworthy. + +God was merciful to him. He opened the door of the humble cottage by +the common, to inquire his way; and there, in the old armchair so well +remembered, sat his mother, with her Bible on her knee. She did not +know him, but she gave him kindly welcome, bidding him sit and rest, as +he seemed weary. She did not know him till she felt his hot tears +dropping on her hands, and heard him praying for pardon at her feet. + +It would do no good to tell what passed between the mother and the son. +That the meeting was joyful, we need not say; but it was very sorrowful, +too. For years of sin and years of suffering must leave traces too deep +for sudden joy to efface. Hugh Blair had left his mother in the prime +of life, a woman having few equals as regards all that in a woman is +admired. He returned to find her feeble, shrunken, helpless, with the +hair beneath her widow's cap as white as snow. He had redeemed his good +name; he had returned to surround her last days with comfort; he had +brought wealth greater than had blessed her most prosperous time. But +for all those years of poverty and doubt and anxiety, those years which +had made her old before her time, what could atone for these? And as +for her, even amid her thankful gladness the thought would come, "How +shall I ever learn to put trust in him, after all these years? Can his +guileless child's heart come back again to him?" + +Oh, yes! the meeting was sorrowful, as well as glad. + +With the joy of Archie and Lilias no misgiving mingled. Their cousin +Hugh had come home again. That was enough for them. In his youth he +had done many foolish things, and maybe some wrong things, they thought. +He had sinned against God and his mother. He had left his home, like +the prodigal, choosing his own will and way rather than do his duty. +But now, like the prodigal, he had come home repenting; and the best +robe and the ring for his hand these happy children made ready for him. + +"There is joy among the angels to-night, Lily," said Archie, coming back +to whisper it to her, after she thought he was asleep. + +"Yes: `this my son was dead, and is alive again; was lost and is +found,'" answered Lilias softly. + +"And now Aunt Janet's midnight prayers will be changed to +thanksgivings," was the last thought of the weary child, as she lay down +that night. Her first thought in the morning was that her aunt would +not want the children for a few days at least, now that her cousin had +come home, and she would get rest and be well again. Her next was that +Mrs Stirling's golden sovereigns might stay with the other +nine-and-twenty in the china teapot; and a curious feeling of regret +mingled itself with the pleasure of the thought. + +"I almost wish that I had taken them,--just to show her that it wasn't +pride; but I dare say Hugh would be better pleased as it is. I wonder +if he is strong and ready at doing things? He doesn't look very strong; +but he is a man and will know how to manage things; and my aunt will not +be anxious and cast down any more. And now I see how foolish I was to +vex myself with what was to happen to us. I might have known that the +Lord was caring for us all the time. `Yet have I not seen the righteous +forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.'" Lilias repeated the words with +a sudden gush of happy tears, hiding her face in the pillow, lest her +aunt should see. + +Hugh and Archie went over the hills to the kirk at Dunmoor that day; but +Lilias dreaded the long walk a little, and she dreaded a great deal the +wondering looks and curious questioning which the sight of the stranger +would be sure to call forth. So she went to the kirk close at hand, +saying nothing to the people who spoke to her of her cousin's return, +lest their coming and going might break the Sabbath quiet of her aunt. +And a very quiet afternoon they had together. Her aunt sat silent, +thinking her own thoughts; and Lilias sat "resting," she said, with her +cheek on her little Bible, and her eyes fixed on the faraway clouds, +till the cousins came home again. + +As for Archie, it was with a radiant face, indeed, that he went into the +full kirk, holding the hand of his cousin Hugh. Some in the kirk +remembered him, others guessed who he might be; and many a doubtful +glance was sent back to the days of his wayward youth, and many an +anxious thought was stirred as to whether his coming home was to be for +good or for ill. + +It was well for him that he had learnt to hide his thoughts from his +fellow-men, to suffer and give no sign of pain, or he would have +startled the Sabbath quiet of the kirk that day by many a sigh and +bitter groan. Sitting in his old familiar place, and listening to the +voice which had taught and warned his childhood, it came very clearly +and sharply before him how impossible it is to undo an evil deed. +Closing his eyes, he could see himself sitting there a child, as his +young cousin sat now at his side; and between this time and that lay +years darkened by deeds which, in the bitterness of his remorse and +self-upbraidings, he said to himself "could never be outlived--never +forgotten." These years had been lost out of his life--utterly lost for +all good; but, oh, how full of sin to him, of pain to others! His sin +might be forgiven, washed away in that blood which cleanseth from all +sin. But could his mother, could others, who had suffered through it, +ever quite outlive the shame and pain? + +It seemed to him that the grave, earnest faces about him were settling +themselves into sternness at the stirring of the same bitter memories +and accusing thoughts; and he would fain have escaped from the glances, +some of them kind and others half averted, that followed him into the +kirk-yard when the service was over. But he could not escape. + +Who could resist the look on Archie's joyful face, so frankly +challenging a welcome for the returned wanderer? Not James Muir, nor +the master, nor scores besides. Not even Nancy Stirling herself, when +Archie, sending a smile up into her face, said-- + +"This is my cousin Hugh come home again." + +"Oh, ay! he's come home again. I kenned him when he was a guileless +laddie, like yourself, Archie, man," said Nancy, not sparing her little +prick to the sore heart. "And where's your sister to-day? Is your aunt +so ill yet as to need to keep her from the kirk?" she added, with the +air of finding a grievance in Lilias's absence. "Or is the lassie not +well herself? She looked weary and worn enough when I bade her +good-night at the stepping-stones in the gloaming. You're not come home +over soon, Maister Hugh. It's time your mother had some one to care for +her besides these bairns." + +Archie looked indignant; but Hugh said gravely and gently-- + +"You are right, Mrs Stirling. You have been a kind friend to my mother +and my cousin Lilias, they tell me, and I thank you from my heart." + +Nancy looked not a little discomfited at this unexpected answer. + +"It would have been liker Hugh Blair to turn on his heel and go his own +way," said she afterwards; "but it may be that many a thing that was +laid to his door in the old days belonged less to him than to those who +beguiled him into evil, poor lad! And, whether or not, it would ill +become me to cast up to him his past ill-deeds to-day." + +"And all the folk were so glad to see him!" said Archie when he came +home. Hugh was lingering outside, speaking to a friend who had walked +with them over the hills, and Archie spoke fast and earnestly to have +all told before he came in. "And they all minded on you, aunt, and said +how thankful you would be, and how the Lord was good to you in your old +age. And James Muir said he hoped he was never to go away again; and +Allan Grant said that English Smith was to give up Glen Elder, and why +should it not go back into the old hands again? They all said he would +surely stay in the countryside now." + +"And what said my son to that?" asked Mrs Blair tremulously. She had +not ventured to ask him herself yet. + +"Oh, he said little. I think it was because his heart was so full. +And, Lily, he put five golden sovereigns into the poor's box! Steenie +Muir told me that he saw his grandfather count it, and he heard him say +that now surely the Lord was to bring back the good days to Glen Elder; +and he thanked God for your sake, aunt. And, Lily, who kens but you may +be `the wee white Lily of Glen Elder' again?" + +"A `wee white Lily,' indeed," said her aunt fondly and gravely; but +Lilias laughed, first at the thought of the golden sovereigns and +Nancy's "nine-and-twenty more," destined still to be hidden away in the +china teapot, and then a little at being called the "Lily of Glen +Elder." + +"It's like a story in a book, aunt. It would be too much happiness to +have the old days come back again--the happy days at Glen Elder;" and +then her ready tears flowed at the thought that followed-- + +"They can never--never quite come back again." + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +LIGHT AT EVENTIDE. + +"Bonny Glen Elder!" repeated Archie to himself many times, as, holding +his cousin's hand, he walked over the fair sloping fields and through +the sunny gardens. His cousin repeated it, too, sometimes aloud, +sometimes sighing the words in regretful silence, remembering all that +had come and gone since the happy days when he, a "guileless laddie," +had called the place his home. + +The farm had been rented by the Elder family for three generations. +Archie's father had never held it. It had been in the hands of Hugh's +father during his short lifetime; but Archie's father and grandfather +had been born there, and his great-grandfather had spent the greater +part of his life on the place; and it quite suited Archie's ideas of the +fitness of things that it should again be held by his cousin, who, +though he did not bear the name, was yet of the blood of these men, +whose memory was still honoured in the countryside. It suited Hugh's +ideas, too, but with one difference. He knew two or three things that +Archie did not know. He had not come back a very rich man, according to +his ideas of riches, though he knew the people about him might call him +rich. He had come home with no plan of remaining, for he was a young +man still, and looked upon the greater part of his life's work as before +him. And through the talk he was keeping up with Archie as they went +on, there was running all the time the question, "Should the rest of his +work be done in India or in Glen Elder?" It was not an easy question to +answer. He felt, with great unhappiness, that, whatever the answer +might be, it must give his mother pain. + +One thing he had determined upon. His mother was to be again the +mistress of Glen Elder. This might be brought to pass in one of two +ways. He could lease the farm, as his forefathers had done, and be a +farmer, as they had been, living a far easier life than they had lived, +however, because of the means he had acquired during the last ten years. +Or, he could purchase Glen Elder, and invest the rest of his fortune +for the benefit of his mother and his little cousins, and then go back +to his business in India again. He thought his mother would like the +first plan best; but it did not seem the best to him. + +He was afraid of himself. He had never, in his youth, liked a quiet, +rural life, and his manner of life for the past ten years had not been +such as to prepare him to like it better. He feared that he could never +settle down contented and useful in such a life; and he knew that an +unwilling sacrifice would never make his mother happy. And, yet, would +it be right to leave her, feeble and aged as she was? Of course his +going away would be different now. He would leave her in comfortable +circumstances, with no doubt about his fate, no fears as to his +well-doing, to harass her. But even in such a case it would not be +right to go away without her full and free consent. + +It spoiled the pleasure of his walk--that and some other thoughts he +had; and he sighed as he sat down to rest on a bank where he had often +rested when a child. + +"I can fancy us all living very happily here, if some things were +different," he said at last. + +"What things, Cousin Hugh?" asked Archie, in some surprise. + +Hugh laughed. + +"I ought to have said, `if I were different myself,' I suppose." + +"But you _are_ different," said Archie. + +"Yes," said his cousin gravely, after a moment's hesitation; "but oh, +lad, I have many sad things to mind, and sinful things, too. All these +years cannot be blotted out nor forgotten." + +"But they are past, Cousin Hugh, and forgiven, and in one sense blotted +out. There is nothing of them left that need hinder you from being +happy here again." + +"Ah, well, that may be. God is good. But I was thinking of something +else when I spoke first. I was thinking that I am not a farmer." + +"But you can learn to be one. It's easy enough." + +"I am afraid I should not find it easy. I am afraid I should not do +justice to the place. It spoils one for a quiet life, to be knocked +about in the world as I have been. And I know I could never make my +mother happy if I were discontented myself; at least, if she knew of my +discontent." + +"She would be sure to see it. You couldn't hide it from her, if +discontent was in your heart. My aunt doesn't say much, but she sees +clearly. But why should you not be happy here? I can't understand it." + +"No; I trust you may never be able to understand it. Archie, lad, it is +one of the penalties of an evil life that it changes the nature, so that +the love of pure and simple pleasures, which it drives away, has but a +small chance of coming back again, even when the life is amended. It is +a sad experience." + +"But an evil life, Cousin Hugh! You should not say that," said Archie +sorrowfully. + +"Well, what would you have? A life of disobedience to one's mother, ten +years of forgetfulness--no, not forgetfulness, but neglect of her. +Surely that cannot be called other than an evil life. And it bears its +fruit." + +There was a long pause; and then Archie said: + +"Cousin Hugh, I'll tell you what I would do. I would speak to my aunt +about it. If it is true that you could never settle down contented +here, she will be sure to see that it is best for you to go, and she +will say so. I once heard James Muir say that he knew no woman who +surpassed my aunt in sense and judgment. She will be sure to see what +is right, and tell you what to do." + +Pleasure and pain oddly mingled in the feelings with which Hugh listened +to his cousin's grave commendation of his mother's sense and judgment; +but he felt that there was nothing better to be done than to tell her +all that was in his heart, and he lost no time in doing so, and Archie's +words were made good. She saw the situation at a glance, and told him +"what to do." Much as she would have liked to have her son near her, +she knew that he was too old to acquire new tastes, and too young to be +content with a life of comparative inactivity. She told him so, +heartily and cheerfully, not marring the effect of her words by any +murmurs or repinings of her own. She only once said: + +"If you could but have stayed in Scotland, Hugh, lad; for your mother is +growing old." + +"Who knows but it may be so arranged?" said Hugh thoughtfully. "There +is a branch of our house in L--. It might be managed. But, whether or +not, I have a year, perhaps two, before me yet." + +But it came to pass, all the same, that before the month of May was out +they were all settled at Glen Elder. Though "that weary spendthrift," +Maxwell of Pentlands, as Mrs Stirling called him, could not break the +entail on the estate of Pentlands, as for the sake of his many debts and +his sinful pleasures he madly tried to do, he could dispose of the +outlying farm of Glen Elder; and Hugh Blair became the purchaser of the +farm and of a broad adjoining field, called the Nether Park. So he +owned the land that his fathers had only leased; or, rather, his mother +owned it, for it was purchased in her name, and was hers to have and to +hold, or to dispose of as she pleased. His mother's comfort, Hugh said, +and the welfare of his young cousins, must not be left to the risks and +chances of business. They must be put beyond dependence on his +uncertain life or possible failure, or he could not be quite at rest +with regard to them when he should be far away. + +Glen Elder had not suffered in the hands of English Smith. As a +faithful servant of the owner, he had held it on favourable terms, and +had hoped to hold it long. So he had done well by the land, as all the +neighbours declared; though at first they had watched his new-fangled +plans with jealous eyes. It was "in good heart" when it changed hands, +and was looking its very best on the bright May day when they went home +to it. It was a happy day to them all, though it was a sad one, too, +for Hugh and his mother. But the sadness passed away in the cheerful +bustle of welcome from old friends; and it was not long before they +settled down into a quiet and pleasant routine. + +The coming home, and the new life opening before her, seemed for a long +time strange and unreal to Lilias. She used to wake in the morning with +the burden of her cottage-cares upon her, till the sight of her pleasant +room, and the sunshine coming in through the clustering roses, chased +her anxious thoughts away. The sense of repose that gradually grew upon +her in her new home was very grateful to her; but she did not enter +eagerly into the new interests and pleasures, as her brother did. +Indeed, she could do very little but be still and enjoy the rest and +quiet; for, when all necessity for exertion was over, that came upon her +which must have come soon at any rate: her strength quite gave way, and, +for some time, anxiety on her account sobered the growing happiness of +the rest. + +Even her aunt did not realise till then how much beyond her strength had +been the child's exertions during the winter and spring. Not that she +would acknowledge herself to be ill. She was only tired, and would be +herself again in a little while. But months passed before that time +came. For many a day she lay on the sofa in the long, low parlour of +Glen Elder, only wishing to be left in peace, smiling now and then into +the anxious faces of her aunt and Archie, saying "it was so nice to be +quiet and to have nothing to do." + +But this passed away. In a little while she was beguiled into the sunny +garden, and before the harvest-holidays set Archie at liberty she was +quite ready and able for a renewal of their rambles among the hills +again. + +As for Mrs Blair, the return of her son, and the coming home to Glen +Elder, did not quite renew her youth; but when the burden that had bowed +her down for so many years was taken away, the change in her was +pleasant to see. For a long time she rejoiced with trembling over her +returned wanderer; but as day after day passed, each leaving her more +assured that it was not her wayward lad that had returned to her, but a +true penitent and firm believer in Jesus, a deeper peace settled down +upon her long-tried spirit, and "I waited patiently for the Lord; and He +inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He hath set my feet upon a rock, +and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth," +became a part of her daily thanksgiving. + +As for him, if it had been the one desire of his life to atone for the +sorrow he had caused her in his youth, he could not have done otherwise +than he did. He made her comfort his first care. Her slightest +intimation was law to him. Silently and unobtrusively, but constantly, +did he manifest a grave and respectful tenderness towards her, till she, +as well as others, could not but wonder, remembering the lad who would +let nothing come between him and the gratification of his own foolish +desires. + +"You dinna mind your cousin Hugh, Lilias, my dear?" said Mrs Stirling +to her one day. "I mind him well--the awfulest laddie for liking his +own way that ever was heard tell of! You see, being the only one left +to her, his mother thought of him first always, till he could hardly do +otherwise than think first of himself; and a sore heart he gave her many +a time. There's a wonderful difference now. It must just be that," +added she, meditatively. "`A new heart will I give you, and a right +spirit will I put within you.' Lilias, my dear, he's a changed man." + +A bright colour flashed into Lilias's face, and tears started in her +eyes. + +"I am sure of it! We may be poor and sick and sorrowful again, but the +worst of my aunt's troubles can never come back to her more." + +He was very kind to his young cousins, partly because he wished to repay +the love and devotion which had brightened so many of his mother's dark +days, but chiefly because he soon loved them dearly for their own sakes. +Lilias he always treated with a respect and deference which, but for +the gentle dignity with which his kindness was received by her, might +have seemed a little out of place offered to one still such a child. + +With Archie he was different. The gravity and reserve which seemed to +have become habitual to Hugh Blair in his intercourse with others never +showed itself to him. The frank, open nature of the lad seemed to act +as a charm upon him. The perfect simplicity of his character, the +earnestness with which he strove first of all to do right, filled his +cousin with wonder, and oftentimes awoke within him bitter regret at the +remembrance of what his own youth had been; and a living lesson did the +unconscious lad become to him many a time. + +No one rejoiced more heartily than did Mrs Stirling at the coming home +of Hugh Blair and the consequent change of circumstances to his mother +and his little cousins; but her joy was expressed in her own fashion. +One might have supposed that, in her opinion, some great calamity had +befallen them, so dismal were her prophecies concerning them. + +"It's true you have borne adversity well, and that is in a measure a +preparation for the well-bearing of prosperity. But there's no telling. +The heart is deceitful, and it is no easy to carry a full cup. You'll +need grace, Lilias, my dear. And you'll doubtless get it if you seek it +in a right spirit." But, judging from Mrs Stirling's melancholy tones +and shakings of the head, it was plain to see that she expected there +would be failure somewhere. + +With keen eyes she watched for some symptoms of the spoiling process in +Lilias, and was slow to believe that she was not going to be +disappointed in her, as she had been in so many others. But time went +on, and Lilias passed unscathed through what, in Nancy's estimation, was +the severest of all ordeals. She was sent to a school "to learn +accomplishments," and came home again, after two years, "not a bit set +up." So Mrs Stirling came to feel at last that she might have faith in +the stability of her young favourite. + +"She's just the very same Lilias Elder that used to teach the bairns and +go wandering over the hills with her brother; only she's blither and +bonnier. She's Miss Elder of the Glen now, as I heard young Mr Graham +calling her to his friend; but she's no' to call changed for all that." + +And Mrs Stirling was right. Lilias was not changed. Prosperity did no +unkind office for her. Those happy days developed in her no germ of +selfishness. Still her first thought was for others, the first desire +of her heart still was to know what was right, and to obtain grace and +strength to do it. In some respects she might be changed, but in this +she was the very same. + +She grew taller and wore a brighter bloom on her cheeks, and she +gradually outgrew the look that was older than her years; but she never +lost the gentle gravity that had made her seem so different from the +other children in the eyes of those who knew her in her time of many +cares. + +Nancy had not the same confidence in Archie. Not that she could find +much fault with him; but he had never been so great a favourite with her +as his sister, and his boyish indifference to her praise or blame did +not, in her opinion, accord with the possession of much sense or +discretion. + +"And, Miss Lilias, my dear, it's no' good for a laddie like him to be +made so much of," said she. "The most of the lads that I have seen put +first and cared for most have, in one way or another, turned out a +disappointment. Either they turned wilful, and went their own way to no +good; or they turned soft, and were a vexation. And it would be a +grievous thing indeed if the staff on which you lean should be made a +rod to correct you, my dear." + +But Lilias feared no disappointment in her brother. + +"`The law of the Lord is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide,'" +she answered softly to Mrs Stirling; and even she confessed that surely +he needed no other safeguard. + +A great deal might be told of the happy days that followed at Glen +Elder. Hugh Blair never went back to India again. He married--much to +his mother's joy--one whom he had loved, and who had loved him, in the +old time, before evil counsels had beguiled him from his duty and driven +him from his home,--one who had never forgotten him during all those +sorrowful days of waiting. Their home was at a distance; but they were +often at Glen Elder, and Mrs Blair's declining days were overshadowed +by no doubt as to the well-doing or the well-being of her son. + +Archie went first to the high school, and then to college. The master +was loth to part from his favourite pupil; but David Graham was going. +It would be well, the master said, for Davie to get through the first +year of the temptations while his brother John was there "to keep an eye +on him;" and Davie's best friends and warmest admirers could not but +agree, and, though not even the doubting Nancy was afraid for Archie as +his master was afraid for his more thoughtless friend, it was yet +thought best that the friends should go together. Archie had some +troubles in his school and college life, as who has not? but he had many +pleasures. He gained honour to himself as a scholar, and, what was +better, he was ever known as one who feared God and who sought before +all things His honour. + +Lilias passed her school-days with her friend Anne Graham, in the house +of the kind Dr Gordon. It need not be said that they were happy, and +that they greatly improved under the gentle and judicious guidance of +Mrs Gordon, and that Lilias learnt to love her dearly. + +And when their school-days were over, there followed a useful and happy +life at home. The girls kept up their old friendship begun that day in +the kirk-yard, with fewer ups and downs than generally characterise the +friendships of girls of their age. Another than Lilias might have +fancied Anne's tone to be a little peremptory sometimes; but, if Miss +Graham thought herself wiser than her friend in some things, she as +fully believed in her friend's superior goodness; and not one of all the +little flock that Lilias used to rule and teach in the cottage by the +common, long ago, deferred more to her than, in her heart, did Anne. + +So a constant and pleasant intercourse was kept up between them, and +Lilias was as much at home in the manse as in the Glen. They still +pursued what Davie derisively called "their studies." That is, they +read history and other books together, some of them grave and useful +books, and some of them not quite so useful, but nice books for all +that. Lilias delighted in poetry, and in the limited number of works of +imagination permitted within the precincts of the manse. Anne liked +them too; but, believing it to be a weakness, she said less about her +enjoyment of them. Indeed, it was her wont to check the raptures of +Lilias and her little sister Jessie over some of their favourites, and +to rebuke the murmurs of the latter over books that were "good, but not +bonny." + +They had other pleasures, too--gardening, and rambles among the hills, +and cottage-visiting. But the chief business and pleasure of Lilias was +in caring for the comfort of her aunt, and in the guiding of the +household affairs at Glen Elder. Matters within and without were so +arranged that, while she might always be busy, she was never burdened +with care; and so the quiet days passed on, each bringing such sweet +content as does not often fall to the lot of any household for a long +time together. + +But, though Lilias took pleasure in her friends and her home, her books +and her household occupations, her best and highest happiness did not +rest on these. Afterwards, when changes came, bringing anxious nights +and sorrowful days, when the shadow of death hung over the household, +and the untoward events of life seemed to threaten separation from +friends who were none the less dear because no tie of blood united them, +the foundation of her peace was unshaken. "For they that trust in the +Lord shall be as Mount Zion, that cannot be removed." + +Here for the present our story must close. + +They went home to Glen Elder in May. Three years passed, and May came +again, and Glen Elder and Kirklands, and all the hills and dales +between, were looking their loveliest in their changing robes of brown +and purple and green. The air was sweet with the scent of +hawthorn-blossoms, and vocal with the song of birds and the hum of bees. +There was not a fleck of cloud on all the sky, nor of mist on all the +hills. The day was perfect, warm, bright, and still; such a day as does +not come many times in all the Scottish year. + +Nancy Stirling stood at her cottage-door, looking out over the green +slope, and the burn running full to the fields beyond, and the faraway +hills; and, as she looked, she sighed, and quite forgot the water-bucket +in her hand, and that she was on her way to the burn for water to make +her afternoon cup of tea. We speak of spring as a joyful season; we +say, "the glad spring," and "the merry, merry May;" and it is a glad +season to the birds and the bees, the lambs and the little children, and +to grown people, too, who have nothing very sad to remember. But the +coming back of so many fair things as the spring brings reminds many a +one of fair things which can never come again; and hearts more contented +than Mrs Stirling's was, sometimes sigh in the light of such a day. + +"It's a bonny day," said she to herself, "a seasonable day for the +country; and we should be thankful." But she sighed again as she said +it; and, for no reason that she could give, her thoughts wandered away +to a row of graves in the kirk-yard, and farther away still, to a home +and a time in which she saw herself a little child, so blithe, so full +of happy life, that, as it all came back, she could not but wonder how +she ever should have changed to the troubled, dissatisfied woman that +she knew herself to be. + +"Oh, well! It couldna but be so, in a world like this. Such changes ay +have been, and ay must be," said she, trying to comfort herself with the +"old philosophy." But she did not quite succeed. For the passing years +had changed her, and it came into her mind, as it had often come of +late, that she might perhaps have made a better use of all that life had +brought her. But it was not a pleasant thought to pursue; and she gave +a little start of relief and pleasure as she caught sight of two figures +coming slowly up the brae. + +"It's Lilias Elder and Archie. She'll have nothing left to wish for now +that she has him home again. Eh! but she's a bonnie lassie, and a good! +And Archie, too, is a well-grown lad, and not so set up as he might be, +considering." + +It was Lilias and her brother. Archie was at home, after his first +session at the college; and Nancy was right; Lilias had little left to +wish for. + +"Well, bairns," she said, after the first greetings were over, "will you +come in, or will you sit down here at the door? It's such a bonny day. +So you're home again, Archie, lad, and glad to be, I hope?" + +"Very glad," said Archie. "I never was so glad before." + +"You said that last time," said Lilias, laughing. + +"Well, maybe I did. But it's true all the same. I'm more glad every +time." + +"And you didna come home before it was time," said Nancy. "You're +thinner and paler than your aunt likes to see you, I'm thinking." + +"I'm perfectly well, I assure you," said Archie. + +"He will have a rest and the fresh country air again," said Lilias. "He +has been very close at his books." + +"Well, it may be that," said Mrs Stirling. "And so you're glad to be +home again? You havena been letting that daft laddie, Davie Graham, +lead you into any mischief that you would be afraid to tell your sister +about, I hope?" + +Archie laughed, and shook his head. Lilias laughed a little, too, as +she said-- + +"Oh no, indeed. Even John says they have done wonderfully well: and +after that you need have no fear." + +"It's not unlikely that two or three things might happen in such a +place, and John Graham be none the wiser. And it's not likely that +he'll say any ill of your brother in your hearing," said Nancy drily. +"Not that I'm misdoubting you, Archie, man; and may you be kept safe, +for your sister's sake!" + +"For a better reason than that, I hope, Mrs Stirling," said Lilias +gravely. + +"Well, so be it; though his sister is a good enough reason for him, I +hope. But where have you been? To see Bell Ray? How is she to-day, +poor body?" + +"We have not been there," said Lilias. "We meant to go when we came +from home; but we stayed so long down yonder that we had no time. I am +going some day soon." + +"And where's `down yonder,' if I may ask?" demanded Mrs Stirling. + +"At the moor cottage," said Lilias. "We came over the hills to see it +again, just to mind us of old times." + +"And we stayed so long, speaking about these old times, that we are +likely to be late home," said Archie; "and they are all coming up from +the manse, to have tea in the Glen. We must make haste home, Lily." + +"Yes; and we stayed a while at the old seat under the rowan-tree. We +could only just reach it, the burn is so full. And look at all the +flowers I found in the cottage-garden--heart's-ease, and daisies, and +sweet-brier, and thyme. It seemed a pity to leave them, with nobody to +see them. Give me something to put them in, Mrs Stirling, and I'll +leave some of them for you. We will have time enough for that, Archie, +never fear." + +She sat down on the door-step, and laid the flowers on her lap. + +"And wherefore should you be caring to mind yourselves of the old times, +I wonder?" said Nancy, as she sat down beside her, holding the jug for +the flowers in her hand. "Some of those days were sad enough, I'm sure. +Maybe it's to make you humble?" + +"Yes, and thankful," said Lilias softly. + +"And those days were very pleasant, too, in one way," said Archie. + +"Ay, to you, lad. But some of them brought small pleasure to your +sister, I'm thinking," said Nancy sharply. "You're a wise lad, but you +dinna ken everything that came in those old times, as you call them." + +"But some of the things that I like best to remember happened on some of +the very worst of those days," said Lilias. "I should never have known +half your goodness, for one thing. Do you mind that last day that I +came to you? Oh, how weary I was that day!" + +"And much good I did you," said Nancy. + +"Indeed you did, more than I could tell you then, more than I can tell +you now," said Lilias, giving the last touch to the flowers as she rose. +"I like to think of those days. We are all the happier now for the +troubles of the old times." + +"And truly I think you'll ay be but the happier for whatever time may +bring you," said Nancy musingly, as she watched them hastening over the +hill together. "`To mind us of the old times,'" quoth she. "There are +few folk but would be glad to forget, and to make others forget, `the +hole of the pit.' And look at these flowers, now! Who but Lilias Elder +would think of a poor body like me caring for what is good neither to +eat nor to drink? She's like no one else. And as for her brother, he's +not so set up as folk might expect. May they be kept safe from the +world's taint and stain! I suppose the Lord can do it. I'm sure He +can. `The law of the Lord is in his heart, none of his steps shall +slide.' She said it of her brother once; and if it is true of him it's +true of her. It is that that makes the difference. They have no cause +to be afraid, even though `the earth be removed.' Eh! but it is a grand +thing to have the Lord on our side! Nothing can go far wrong with us +then." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Orphans of Glen Elder, by +Margaret Murray Robertson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORPHANS OF GLEN ELDER *** + +***** This file should be named 27983.txt or 27983.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/9/8/27983/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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