Margaret M. Robertson

“ Miss Elizabeth was “seeing things in the fire,” Katie knew, by the look on her face, wondering what she saw. She looked “like a picture,” sitting there in her pretty dress, with her cheek upon her hand. What a soft white hand it was, with its one bright ring sparkling in the firelight! Katie looked at it, and then at her own. Hers was not very large, but it was red and roughened, bearing traces of her daily work. She held it up and looked at it in the firelight, not at all knowing why she did it, but with the strangest feeling of discomfort. ”

“ And when James Fleming died, and the old man fell into his enemy’s hand, as he thought, his whole life was made bitter to him.
It was not that he grudged to Jacob anything either of wealth or consideration that he had won for himself. But with every thought of him was joined the thought of the son who, in his father’s eyes, had been as much above him as one human being could well be above another, in goodness, in cleverness, in beauty, in all that makes a man worthy of love and honour from his fellows, and he grew sick sometimes with the thought of it all. ”

“ Sugaring-off is the final process of sugar-making, when the syrup into which the sap has been made by long boiling down, is clarified and skimmed and boiled still until it is clear as amber, ready, when cooled, to become a solid mass of glittering sweetness. It is astonishing what a quantity of the warm brown liquid can be consumed with pleasure, and without satiety, and on sugaring-off days not even the half-acknowledged dread of Mr Fleming and his stern looks and ways prevented a gathering of young people larger than would have been welcome to less open-handed folk. ”

“ For Miss Betsey had been young at a time when there was little danger that indolence or self-indulgence could injure the full development of healthful beauty, and as yet Miss Elizabeth had fallen on easy days, and was languid at times, and delicate, and if the truth must be told, a little discontented with what life had as yet brought her, and a little afraid of what might lie before her, and there was a shadow of this on her fair face to-day. ”

“ She came one day into Elizabeth’s sitting-room to find Mr Maxwell there in animated discussion with Clifton. She hardly recognised him in the new brightness of his face, and the animation of his voice and manner. He was as unlike as possible to the silent, constrained young man who daily sat at her table, and who responded so inadequately to her efforts for his entertainment. She liked the minister, and wished to make him happy in her house, and there was real pain mingled with the unreasonable anger she felt as she watched him. ”

“ They went slowly on together, speaking few words, content to be silent in each other’s company.
It was a bonny day, the old man said, and the grass was fine and green; and Katie bade him look at the barley turning yellow already, and at the purple shadows on the great hay-field as the wind passed over it.
“I like to watch them,” said Katie, “and, grandfather, doesna it mind you of the waves of the sea?” ”

“ And the frame of the new dairy was lying ready beside the burn to be put up as soon as the snow melted, and the water was to be made to run round the milk-pans in the warm nights, and Katie, under the direction of her grandmother, was to make the best butter in the country. All this might not seem of much interest to any one but themselves, but listening to them, and watching their happy, eager faces, Elizabeth, who had more than the common power of enjoying other people’s happiness, felt herself to be refreshed and encouraged as she listened, especially to what was said about Davie. ”

“ Elizabeth smiled and shook her head. “Tell me what my life is like?”
There was a pause, during which Katie considered.
“You have a quiet life, and you are a comfort to your father, and everybody loves you.”
“I am afraid there are some people who do not love me much. As to my father, yes. I shall never be quite a useless person while he needs me. But as to my life being a happy life—”
“You have leisure,” said Katie after a little, “and you take pleasure in so many things—things going on far away, and that happened long ago. And you care for books, and you understand people. ”

“ When he is gone, there will not be one left in the world who might not do without me as well as not, though perhaps there are one or two who might not think so for a little while.”
“Well, that may be said of most folks, I guess, but of you with less truth than of most.”
Elizabeth made a movement of dissent.
“You are young enough to make friends, and it is easy for you to make them. I don’t believe anybody ever saw your face who didn’t want to see it again. You want to do good in the world, and you have the means and the natural gifts for doing it, and that is happiness.” ”

“ I’ll have no time for ill company. I’m no to be an idle gowk like Clifton Holt, to throw away my chances. And here’s Katie ay to take care of me and keep me out of mischief.”
“My lad, speak no ill of your neighbours. You’ll need all the sense you have before you get far through the world. And you’ll need grace and wisdom from above, as well, whether your work lie in high places with the great men of the earth, or just sowing and reaping in Ythan Brae. And as for Katie and her care of you, there’s many a true word spoken in jest, and you maun be a good laddie, Davie.” ”

“ It is something more than the natural affection which strengthens (as children grow older) into brotherly and sisterly love. It implies something that is not always found where the ties of blood and kindred are most warmly cherished, not a blindness to each other’s faults or defects of character, but a full and loving appreciation of all admirable qualities both of mind and heart, a harmony of feeling, sentiments, and tastes which does not exist between brothers and sisters generally.
Day by day Mrs Fleming grew more and more at ease about Davie, seeing the love between the brother and sister. ”

“ The grandmother knew how it was with him, and Katie and Davie guessed something of what his reasons might be. “And, bairns,” said their grandmother, “ye are no to doubt that your grandfather is right, though he doesna see as ye do in this matter. For knowledge is whiles a snare and a curse; and a true heart, and an honest life, and a will to do your duty in the place in which your Maker has putten you are better than a’ the uncanny wisdom that men gather from books, whether you believe it or not, Davie, my man. I canna say that I have any special fear for you myself, but one can never ken. ”

“ Mr Fleming had for a long time said little either of past troubles or future fears, and it was on the past rather than the future that his thoughts dwelt. The future looked dark enough in some of its aspects, but it was by no means hopeless. Davie was more nearly right than Katie was willing to believe, when he said that his grandfather, as well as a good many others in Gershom, were waiting to see “what the Lord was going to do about it,” whether it was to be a case of “the righteous never forsaken,” or whether this time “the race was to be to the swift, and the battle to the strong.” ”

“ Katie looked at him with beseeching eyes, and Davie hung his head.
“Davie, my laddie, have patience,” said his grandmother in a little; “what is a year or two out of a young life like yours compared with giving a sore heart to an old man like your grandfather? He has had sore trouble to thole in his lifetime, some that you can guess, and some that you will never ken, and his heart is just set on Katie and you.” ”

“ But at night when his wife slumbered, worn out with the day’s watching, or when she seemed to slumber, and in Pine-tree Hollow, which in the time of his former troubles had become to him a refuge and a sanctuary, his cry ascended to God in an agony of confession and entreaty. He, too, wondered that it should be God’s will that the child of his enemy should be saved, and his child’s life made the sacrifice; but he did not consciously rebel against that will. It was God’s doing; Davie had not even known whose child it was whom he tried to save. ”

“ And contentment depends more on ourselves, and less on other folk, than happiness does. And so we are safer with just contentment,” said Katie, and in a little she added, “Submission to God’s will, that would be contentment.”
“That would be happiness,” said Elizabeth, and there was nothing more said for a long time.
They were sitting in Miss Elizabeth’s sitting-room, a perfect room to Katie Fleming’s mind, and the only light came from the red embers of the wood-fire, now falling low. ”

“ It was Jacob alone who was to be dealt with, for his father was an old man, and his connection with the business had long been merely nominal. Jacob Holt had changed since the days when he had been, as Hugh Fleming’s father firmly believed, the ruin of his son. He had changed from an ill-doing, idle lad, into a man, noted even in that busy community for his attention to business, a man who took pains to seek a fair reputation for honesty and generosity among his fellow-townsmen. ”

“ He had always been a prosperous man in a safe and quiet way, but of late he had become a rich man, and though no decided change had as yet been made in the manner of life of his family, she knew by various signs and tokens that Miss Essie at least was to have the benefit of those advantages which wealth can give. And though she told herself that she did not doubt that she would be brought safely through the temptations to which wealth might expose her, she sometimes thought of her picture with a troubled heart. ”

“ Katie’s Friendships.
The life which healthy, good-tempered, unsophisticated children may live on a farm has in it more of the elements of true enjoyment than can be found in almost any other kind of life. If poverty or the necessity of constant work press too severely upon them, of course the enjoyment is interfered with, but not even poverty or hard work can spoil it altogether. There are always the sunshine and the sweet air; there are the freshness and the beauty of the early morning, which not one in ten of the dwellers in town know anything of by experience ”

“ Even Elizabeth, who thought more kindly of him than any one, except perhaps his father, did not imagine how much the sight of the old man’s increasing weakness had moved him.
Jacob went to a prayer-meeting that night, and, as his custom was, sat on a back seat near the door. The rich man of the village was not a power in the church when one looked beyond material things—the regular subscription-list, the giving of money, the exercise of hospitality—and except in regularity of attendance, he was certainly not a power in the prayer-meeting. ”

“ It had been snowing heavily for a while, and the movement of the sleigh had been unheard by Elizabeth, or she would have taken the shaking of the snowy garments into her own hands.
“Folks as usual?” said Miss Betsey, as she came into the front kitchen, where Sally reigned supreme, conscious of her value as “help,” and careful of her dignity as a citizen of Gershom, “as good as anybody.” ”

“ The mistress of a new farm found little time for visiting. Winter had its own work, and the snow and the bitter cold kept them within doors. When winter was over they could only think how best to turn to account the long days of the short Canadian summer for the subduing of the soil, out of which must come food for their hungry little ones. Every foot reclaimed from the swamp or the forest, every unsightly thing burned out of the rough, new land, meant store of golden grain and wholesome bread for the future. ”

“ Katie was troubled sometimes, but Davie made light of her fears, and the rest followed Davie’s lead. Davie was of Mr Green’s opinion:
“It will never amount to anything, all that he’ll do to my grandfather. He’ll stop before he gets to the end. Mind, I don’t say that he won’t be as great a rogue as he knows how to be, but he is a small man, is Jacob, and he’ll make a muddle of it. He couldn’t do his worst with the eyes of all Gershom on him. He hasn’t pluck to take even what is his own against the general opinion.” ”

“ Katie did not scorn them. She would have enjoyed more of them than fell to her share, but yet was willing to agree with her grandmother that more might not be good for her, and was on the whole content without them.
Very rarely does there come in a lifetime a triumph so unmixed as the boy enjoys who is not only declared first, but shows himself before his whole world to be first in the village school. ”

“ I’ve seen the time when I would have been glad to come forward and confess Him and do my part in the church, before Lizzie’s mother died. But when a man gets on in years it isn’t easy for him to come out before the world and do as he ought. I hope it will be all right, and as I told Jacob the other day, when the time does come for me to be judged I’d full as lief be standing on the same platform with old David Fleming as with most any of the professors in Gershom. ”

“ A girl just out of school, who had seen nothing of the world, who could not possibly know her own mind on any matter of importance, must not be suffered to do herself this wrong. He smiled a little when Aunt Martha, hoping to move him, dwelt earnestly on her dear Essie’s views of life, her plans of usefulness, and her desire above all things to do some good in the world. ”

“ Within ten years of the coming of the brothers, the cluster of dwellings rising around the saw-mill which Gershom Holt had built on the Beaver River—the store, the school-house, the blacksmith’s shop—began to be spoken of by the farmers as “the village.” Every year of the ten that followed was marked by tokens of the slow but sure prosperity which, when the settlers have been men of moral lives and industrious habits, has uniformly attended the planting of the later Canadian settlements. ”

“ She is not going to die. Oh, mother! mother! Surely God is not going to take her from us yet. No. I’m not going to cry; I havena time,” said Katie. “And, mother, she says it herself, and I don’t think she is going to die. Oh, if Miss Betsey could have been here to-night!”
Katie resolutely put away her tears and her fears, and prepared for a night of watching. First, she made her mother lie down with a warm wrapper on her, so that she might be ready to come at any moment. Then she sent the bairns to their beds, and wished that Davie would come home. ”

“ The eldest of their two sons was almost a man when they came to live at Ythan Brae. He was a quiet, well-doing lad, reserved like his father, but pleasant-spoken and friendly like his mother. His brother Hugh had inherited his mother’s good looks and sunny temper, and he had, besides, the power which does not always accompany the possession of personal beauty or cleverness—the power of winning love. ”