“Ay, that’s liker the thing,” said he.
And Mrs. Barrie spoke very nicely to him; her silver tones touched his ear like music, and her words reached his heart as she thanked him for what he had so beautifully done at wee Nellie’s grave; and she prevailed on him to come into the dining-room to see a miniature of her Nellie that a friend had painted from memory, and presented to her. There were other pictures on the walls, mostly engravings, which Mrs. Barrie explained so neatly, and with so much animation and clearness, that Dan forgot himself in listening to her, and when she had gone round the room he asked:
“What did ye say about this ane, if you please, mem? I think ye called it the Angel’s Whisper?”
“MINISTERING ANGELS.”
When she re-described it, he asked about another and another. All the engravings were on suggestive subjects, and Mrs. Barrie made them doubly interesting by her explanations; and almost unconsciously to herself, she kept dropping into his weary heart simple loving words of truth and peace as poor Dan turned from one picture to another, and Mrs. Barrie followed up her description with increasing interest to herself as well as to Dan. She also gave him the clothes, and very sweetly counselled him to go to the church, any church he liked, and he would hear some fine pictures.
“There’s nane in the Blinkbonny kirks that I ever heard o’, unless it be yon marble image on young Captain McLellan’s headstane at the side o’ the auld kirk pulpit; an’ I aye said to Guy’s gude-faither, auld Ritchie, that it was daftlike to hae guns and bayonets an’ swords stuck up like stooky [stucco] images in a kirk. But I dinna ken what to do wi’ thae fine claes [clothes]; they’re no’ the least like me.”
Dan, however, accepted them at length with a very proper bow, if lowness is any criterion, took another look of Nellie’s miniature, and made several bows to Mrs. Barrie as he left the dining-room.
His description of the pictures gave Bell great delight, and she dropped in a useful word or hint now and again as he went on. Dan ended with:
“Bell, yon picture o’ wee Nellie let’s me ken her noo, an’ I will keep her grave snod; an’ there’s yon ane about the angel’s whisper, an’ anither ane I maun ask ye to let me see again some day. D’ye ken if Mrs. Barrie wad haud [hold] the kirk in the dinin’-room, an’ gang o’er yon pictures, she wad beat a’ the ministers ever I heard” (“No very mony, after a’,” thought Dan to himself, “mair’s the pity”). “What for do they no’ hae pictures in the kirk, an’ tell ye’ about them, like Mrs. Barrie? I think they wad soon fill their kirks if they did that.”
Dan tried on the clothes as soon as he got home, and he scarcely knew himself. His first remark was, “Guy, mind yersel’, or I’ll rin ye hard for the beadleship!” His next, looking at his hands, “They’s no like thae claes.” He then took down his fishing-rod, took his towel with him (it was a ragged old potato bag), bought a bit of soap as he passed through the village, sought out a quiet pool, and made himself as clean as soap, water, and a rough towel could make him. After this was over, “Ah, but I’m the better o’ that; I’ll do’t oftener,” said he, and put up his fishing-rod. The best of the fish he caught were put under Knowe Park “bass” as formerly, long after night had fairly settled down. Dan started next day to clean his house. Some corners needed it very badly. He did the cleaning very well considering.