Robbie

“ Usually they scampered up it, and rolled down the steepest side—not, truly, when there was milk to carry, but at other times. And now Elsie was walking along in a languid, mincing fashion, as if she had no more fun in her than Robbie himself, and had never scampered bare-foot over the moor six days out of every week, no matter what the weather might be.
"There's Robbie at the garden gate beckoning us. I expect mother's very angry," cried Duncan, despairingly.
"Who cares? let him beckon," Elsie replied, with the most provoking indifference. "Run on by yourself if you're afraid." ”

“ When that had happened it wouldn't be truthful for the parrot to tell her that Robbie loved her best. She would listen for the clock to strike, the fire to rustle, the coals to drop in the grate. Towards midnight taxis would enter the square. Lovers would alight. She would hear the paying of the fare, the tapping of a woman's high-heeled shoes on the pavement, the slipping of the key into the latch, the opening and closing of the door, and then again the silence. She would fold up her work, turn out the lights and stand alone in the darkness, invisible as a ghost. ”

“ You look ever so much better already," said Basil, tugging away at the stirrup. "And I dare say when you get back to Robbie he will have you painted up, and then you will feel just like you used to feel."
"Yes," said the old horse; "he will have me done up like new, and he will tell his little boy to love me for his sake, and all my happy days will begin again. Often at night I have listened to the wind roaring in the chimney and have shivered with cold, and have thought how Robbie would have put a rug over me if he were here." ”

“ He had found a good market by coming so far, and he was returning to Wythburn in high feckle. When he came (as he would have said) “ebbn fornenst” Robbie lying at the roadside, he jumped down from his seat. “What poor lad's this? Why, what! What say! What!” holding himself back to grasp the situation, “Robbie Anderson!”
Then a knowing smile overspread Reuben's wrinkled features as he stooped to pat and push the prostrate man, in an effort to arouse him to consciousness.
“Tut, Robbie, lad; Robbie, ma lad! This wark will nivver do, Robbie! Brocken loose agen, aye! Come, Robbie, up, lad!” ”

“ Also there were many beautiful women who did their best to make Robbie happy. Robert was always a favorite with the girls, being a generous-hearted boy; he always paid for what he got, and paid the very highest prices in the market. He hired a pretty little yacht and took his [16] friend and some congenial ladies for a beautiful trip upon the Mediterranean; and the sky was blue and the air warm, and Robbie stretched himself upon the deck, and basked in the sunlight and imbibed the soft fragrance of cigars and perfumes, and opened his heart and was happy as never in his life before. ”

“ You wouldn’t let Robbie die on a dunghill if I were to go away!”
“No, indeed, Eppie!” Gavan smiled.
“I think you really love Robbie as much as I do, Gavan. You love him more than Uncle Nigel does. One can always see in people’s eyes how much they love a dog. That fat, red Miss Erskine simply feels nothing for them, though she always says ‘Come, come,’ to Robbie. But her eyes are like stones when she looks at him. She is really thinking about her tea, and watching to see that Aunt Rachel puts in plenty of cream. ”

“ The old servants of the house had been forced, also by supernatural fears, to leave. A most determined attempt had been made against Robbie's nerves and Mary's courage. And now, at the climax of the crescendo—for then it seemed to me, God forgive me! that my experience had been worse than Robbie's death—I, the fourth housekeeper, was being terrified almost out of my wits. All these things pointed to one conclusion. It was somebody's interest to isolate little Mrs. Brane. It was especially somebody's interest to frighten every one away from the northern wing. ”

“ He only said, “Robbie, what haf I say? I do not understand,” and, looking white and miserable, walked quietly off to his blankets and turned in. To us it was as though a girl, a child, had been struck, and no one felt this more than Robbie himself, as soon as he saw that the insult was not intentional. The look on Soltké’s face was that of a stricken woman, a look of dull, unmerited pain. He was not cowed—just dazed and hurt, but inexpressibly hurt. You will see men blink and shuffle under that look in a woman’s face. You will see a master quail before it in a servant. ”

“ They stop, as Robbie has.”
“How do you know he has stopped? It’s only,” said Eppie, groping, “that he doesn’t want his body any longer.”
“But it’s Robbie in his body that we want. It’s his body, with Robbie in it, that we know. God has done with wanting him—that’s it, perhaps; but we want him. Oh, Eppie, it’s no good: as we know him, as we want him, he is dead—dead forever. Besides,”—in speaking this Gavan straightened himself,—“we shall forget him.” ”

“ I knew that the very best way of making Robbie cross was to doubt that he had seen fairies; for he was a strange child, and would if at all encouraged tell the quaintest tales of the "dog fairies," a mysterious class of fairy invented, I believe, by him, and the "things that came to see him at night;" for he always thought his dreams were real. Perhaps when a child is not four years old it has still some lingering remembrances of the unknown land. I think so at least, for in no other way could I account for sights that Robbie would tell me of perfectly simply and naturally. ”

“ Tho' ye may tak my mither."
Now Robbie girned and shook his head:
Quo' he, "I think I'll marry;
And so I'll tak ye at your word,
To end the hurry burry."
So Robbie and our ain gudewife
. Agreed to creep together:
So I've ta'en Robbie Tamson's pet,
And Robbie's ta'en my mither.
CUPID'S GARDEN
Original As I were in Cupid's garden,
Not more nor half-an-hour,
'Twere there I see'd two maidens,
Sitting under Cupid's bower,
A-gathering of sweet jassamine,
The lily and the rose.
These be the fairest flowers
As in the garden grows. ”

“ Robbie was saying.
“Ey, wet and sladderish,” said Reuben, in an insinuating tone, “baith inside and out, baith under foot and ower head.”
“It was north of the bridge,” Robbie whispered.
“What were—Carlisle?” asked Reuben in his most facetious vein.
“It blows a bit on the Stye Head to-day, Ralph. The way's ower narrow. I can never chain the young horse. Steady, Betsy; steady, lass; steady—”
“Why, the lad's ram'lin',” said Reuben to himself.
“It was fifty strides north of the bridge,” Robbie whispered again; and then lifting his voice he cried, “She's gone; she's gone.” ”

“ At one corner of the field there is a thicket overgrown with wild roses, white and red. Robbie Anderson, who has just escaped from a rebellious gang of lads who have been climbing on his shoulders and clinging to his legs, is trying to persuade Liza Branthwaite that there is something curious and wonderful lying hidden within this flowery ambush. ”

“ He never left 'The Pines,' winter or summer, though he would send Robbie and me away,”—she gave the pitiful, little sigh that came always now with Robbie's name. “He was not at all rich, though we were sufficiently comfortable on my small fortune. But at times he talked like a very wealthy man. He made plans, he was very strange about it. At last, towards the end of his life he began to drop hints. He would tell me that some day Robbie would be rich beyond dreams ”

“ She proceeded to talk to both of us, as her manner was at the dinner-table, with an intuition wrong in itself, but so excruciatingly right in general direction that it made me catch my breath.
“Yes, those sonnets,” she said. “How amazingly feminine they are, both in their tenderness and bitterness. Or, perhaps, all I mean is that women will always appreciate them more than men. When I say them over to myself, as I so often do, I seem to see Robbie reading them to Aggie Lockett. Certainly, I thought, when she first spoke to me about Robbie, that she was absolutely devoted to him. ”

“ You're just like Robbie. When Robbie wants to tell me something that's difficult, he has a special place against which he hides his face; it's easier to tell me there. You men are all such little boys. If it's difficult to tell, you do the same and say it without looking at me.”
She reseated herself beneath the lamp and took up her sewing. ”

“ Robbie has fallen in action.
The truth dawns on the old man in a moment. An unseen flash as of lightning seems to strike him, and he reels as if about to fall. Mona calls to some of the farm hands, and they help her father indoors and up to bed, and then run for the nearest doctor—the English doctor of the First Compound. ”

“ My interest in the mysterious child was heightened by Robbie's quaint fancy; and I asked with a certain degree of eagerness if the other children on the ship saw her.
"No," said Robbie, looking rather puzzled; "not even Mab; and she does tell such nice stowiz—she ought to see faiwiz." ”

“ When the first glimmer of gray appeared in the east, Sim was awakened, and Ralph and he, after eating a hurried breakfast, started away on foot.
Where is Robbie now? A life hangs on the fortunes of this very hour!
“Tell them the horses came from the Woodman at Kendal,” said Ralph as he parted from his old comrade. “You've done better than save our lives, Brown, God bless you!” ”

“ It was now two, and Ralph and Sim, riding good horses, must be many miles away. Robbie's vexation was overpowering when he thought of the hours that he had wasted at Winander and of the old gossip at the street corner who had prompted him to the fruitless search.
“The feckless old ninny,” he thought in his mute indignation; “when an old man comes to be an old woman it's nothing but right that he should die, and have himself done with.” ”

“ Of course R. Grosvenor (I'm not going to say uncle) , doesn't know that we're quite well now. I'm sure he thinks we're dead. Who does 'your own' mean but Robbie. Oh, how dull you are, Duncan! Can't you see now why she pets that boy so, and makes such a fuss over him? He's her own, and we're not; she loves him and doesn't love us. Did she ever beat Robbie?"
"Robbie isn't naughty," Duncan protested; "at least, only a very little sometimes."
Elsie uttered an impatient exclamation. "Does Robbie have to fetch milk, and go to school, and pick up wood? No; he's treated different. ”

“ Philip.
Not for ever, Robbie. Whom the press loves die young.
Roope.
It's fickle, you mean—some day it'll turn and rend you? Perhaps. Still, if you make hay while the sun shines——
Philip.
The sun! You don't call that the sun! [Disdainfully.] P'ssh!
Roope.
[Leaving him.] Oh, I've no patience with you! [Spluttering.] Upon my word, your hatred of publicity is—is—is—is morbid. It's worse than morbid—it's Victorian. [Sitting in the chair by the small table.] There! I can't say anything severer.
Philip.
[Advancing.] Yes, but wait a moment, Robbie. ”

“ Durkin muttered. "I saw it when I stopped at the gas station to get my battery checked. I figured it was just heat lightning."
"Robbie saw it too," Robert's mother said. "It means a lot to a boy to know he's living in an age like this. In some ways Robbie is a man already, Will. A boy born a hundred years ago had to remain a child every waking hour. But not Robbie. Robbie was born into a different kind of world."
Her eyes flashed with stubborn pride. "Robbie has real strength inside of him, Will. He'll make a mark for himself in the world. He'll grow up knowing what atomic energy means. ”

“ Only Wythburn's a hard-spoken place, and they're sure to make a scandal of it.”
“It's a pity about Robbie,” said Rotha sympathetically.
Liza could scarcely control her tears. After she had dashed a drop or two from her eyes, she said: “I cannot tell what it's all about. He's always in a ponder, ponder, with his mouth open—except when he's grindin' his teeth. I hate to see a man walking about like a haystack. And Robbie used to have so much fun once on a time.” ”

“ Come, Robbie dear, all women are not as little and black and dreary as your poor mamma. I'll let him creep off into a corner, Miss Gale, while we have tea, then he'll get used to your prettiness and that wonderful hair from a distance. ”

“ And now, my lad, bloodhounds or none on our trail, bring us something to eat.”
CHAPTER XXXI. ROBBIE, SPEED ON!
Upon reaching the Woodman at Kendal, Robbie found little reason to doubt that Sim had been there and had gone. A lively young chambermaid, who replied to his questions, told him the story of Sim's temporary illness and subsequent departure with another man.
“What like of a man was he, lass—him as took off the little fellow?” asked Robbie.
“A very personable sort; maybe as fine a breed as you'd see here and there one,” replied the girl. ”

“ Liza is beside herself with anxiety.
“It's Robbie—no, yes—no—egg him on, do; te-lick; te-smack.”
One man has rounded the summit, and two others follow him neck-and-neck. They are coming down, jumping, leaping, flying. They're here, here, and it is—yes, it is Robbie that leads!
“Well done! Splendid! Twelve minutes! Well done! Weel, weel, I oles do say 'at ye hev a lang stroke o' the grund, Robbie,” says Mattha.
“And what do you say?” says Robbie, panting, and pulling on his coat as he turns to Liza, who is trying to look absent and unconcerned. ”

“ You did buy Robbie more things, and never sent him for the milk."
"Ye're right enough, Elsie," Mrs. MacDougall said, with a sigh. "There's many a time, when I've been sore pressed, I've been tempted to take the money that Robbie's father sent to buy the clothes you and Duncan were in need of; but I've always stood against it, and never spent a penny of that money for any other purpose than [Pg 329] the right one, and I've taken care of the child more jealously than if he was my own. But the Evil One himself must have put it in your heart to be jealous of that poor little lad. ”