“On such a day as this I am all in favour of walking,” said Ralph, amused at the minister’s earnestness.
“Sir! it’s a grand exercise, you’ll not be finding a better; there are your bicycles that bend a man’s back like an overstrung bow, and your tricycles that are no light diversion to push up our Scottish hills, and there are those works of the evil one which whirl you through creation at such a pace that you are no wiser at the end of a journey than you were at the beginning of it. But a man that walks, sir, must be blind and deaf if he’s not a better man after his walk than he was before.”
“Well, I shall be able to test your theory,” said Ralph. “For I am walking as far as Glasgow.”
“And which way will you be taking?” asked the minister. “You should spend a few days among the Grampians, if you are anything of a mountaineer.”
“I must push on as fast as I can,” said Ralph; “and by the most direct route. They told me at Forres that after Grantown I had better make for Kingussie.”
“If you’ll come into the Manse, I will show you on the map the very route I have often travelled myself in past days,” said the minister. And Ralph, nothing loth, followed him into his house, and was soon poring over a big ordnance map, and receiving some very helpful information from the old man.
They were interrupted before long by a knock at the door, and the appearance of an aged housekeeper with a large, well-fed, tabby cat in her arms.
“The feesh is on the table, sir, and it’s a sair temptation for puss, puir wee thing, starving hungry as she is.” Ralph sprang up to take leave, glancing humourously at the fat tabby, who was in such haste for her food. The minister noted the glance; he noted, too, for the first time, the extreme shabbiness of his guest’s clothes, and certain signs of under-feeding about him.
“We’ll no keep puss waiting, Tibbie,” he said. “But just lay another place at the table, for I hope this gentleman has time to dine with me.” Then as Ralph hesitated to accept the hospitality he overruled all objections by adding: “You’ll be doing me a real kindness if you’ll stay, for it is not very often that I get a visitor to talk with in this country place.”
He led the way as he spoke into the adjoining room, a plainly-furnished parlour with nothing ornamental about it, but with a certain charm of its own, nevertheless, from its pure cleanliness and simplicity. Puss occupied a chair on her master’s right hand, and purred loudly through the somewhat long grace, and Tibbie, having provided for the wants of the visitor, left them to enjoy the meal in peace. For dinner at the Manse was not an affair with many courses, but just freshly-caught fish from the river, baps baked that morning by the housekeeper, a salad from the garden, and the remains of a cheese which had been a present to the minister on New Year’s day.