In thus holding to what he had undertaken, a man of lower nature might have had respect to the example he would so give: Cosmo thought only of honourable and grateful fulfilment of his contract. Not only would it have been a poor return for Mr. Henderson’s kindness to treat his service as something beneath him now, but, worst of all, it would have been to accept ennoblement at the hands of Mammon, as of a power able to alter his station in God’s world. To change the spirit of one’s ways because of money, is to confess onesself a born slave, a thing of outsides, a knight of Riches, with a maggot for his crest.
When the time came, therefore, Cosmo presented himself. With a look of astonishment shadowed by disappointment, the worthy farmer held out his hand.
“Laird,” he said, “I didna expec’ you!”
“What for no?” returned Cosmo. “Haena I been yer fee’d man for months!”
“Ye put me in a kin’ o’ a painfu’ doobt, laird. Fowk tellt me ye had fa’en heir til a sicht o’ siller!”
“But allooin’, hoo sud that affec’ my bargain wi’ you, Mr. Henderson? Siller i’ the pooch canna tak obligation frae the back.”
“Drivin’ things to the wa’, nae doobt!” returned the farmer. “I micht certainly hae ta’en the law o’ ye, failin’ yer appearance. But amo’ freen’s, that cudna be; an’ ’deed, Mr. Warlock, gien a body wad be captious, michtna he say it wad hae been mair freen’ly to beg aff?”
“A bargain’s a bargain,” answered Cosmo; “an’ to beg aff o’ ane ’cause I was nae langer i’ the same necessity as whan I made it, wad hae been a mere shame. Gien my father hed been wi’ me, an’ no weel eneuch to like me oot o’ ’s sicht, I wad hae beggit aff fest eneuch, but wi’ no rizzon, it wad hae been ill-mainnert, no to say dishonest an’ oongratefu’. Gien ye hae spoken to ony ither i’ my place, he s’ hae the fee, an’ I s’ hae the wark. Lat things stan’, Mr. Henderson.”
“Laird!” answered the farmer, not a little moved, “there’s no a man I wad raither see at my wark nor yersel’. A’ o’ them, men an’ women, work the better whan ye’re amo’ them. They wad be affrontit no to haud up wi’ a gentleman! Sae come awa’ an’ walcome!—ye’ll tak something afore we fa’ tu?”
Cosmo accepted a jug of milk, half cream, from the hand of Elsie.