‘Come awa in by, Steenie, my man!’ she said, in a tone that seemed to wrap its object in fold upon fold of tenderness, enough to make the peat-smoke that pervaded the kitchen seem the very atmosphere of the heavenly countries. ‘Come and hae a drappy o’ new-milkit milk, and a piece (a piece of bread).’
Steenie stood smiling and undecided on the slab in front of the doorstep.
‘Dreid naething, Steenie,’ his mother went on. ‘There’s no ane to interfere wi’ yer wull, whatever it be. The hoose is yer ain to come and gang as ye see fit. But ye ken that, and Kirsty kens that, as weel’s yer father and mysel.’
‘Mother, I ken what ye say to be the trowth, and I hae a gran’ pooer o’ believin the trowth. But a’body believes their ain mither: that’s i’ the order o’ things as they war first startit! Still I wud raither no come in the nicht. I wud raither haud awa and no tribble ye wi’ mair o’ the sicht o’ me nor I canna help—that is, till the cheenge come, and things be set richt. I dinna aye ken what I’m aboot, but I aye ken ’at I’m a kin’ o’ a disgrace to ye, though I canna tell hoo I’m to blame for ’t. Sae I’ll jist bide theroot wi’ the bonny stars ’at’s aye theroot, and kens a’ aboot it, and disna think nane the waur o’ me.’
‘Laddie! laddie! wha on the face o’ God’s yerth thinks the waur o’ ye for a wrang dune ye?—though wha has the wyte o’ that same I daurna think, weel kennin ’at a’thing’s aither ordeent or allooed, makin muckle the same. Come winter, come summer, come richt, come wrang, come life, come deith, what are ye, what can ye be, but my ain, ain laddie!’
Steenie stepped across the threshold and followed his mother into the kitchen, where the pot was already on the fire for the evening’s porridge. To hide her emotion she went straight to it, and lifted the lid to look whether boiling point had arrived. The same instant the stalwart form of her husband appeared in the doorway, and there stood for a single moment arrested.
He was a good deal older than his wife, as his long gray hair, among other witnesses, testified. He was six feet in height, and very erect, with a rather stiff, military carriage. His face wore an expression of stern goodwill, as if he had been sent to do his best for everybody, and knew it.
Steenie caught sight of him ere he had taken a step into the kitchen. He rushed to him, threw his arms round him, and hid his face on his bosom.
‘Bonny, bonny man!’ he murmured, then turned away and went back to the fire.
His mother was casting the first handful of meal into the pot. Steenie fetched a three-leggit creepie and sat down by her, looking as if he had sat there every night since first he was able to sit.