He had a strange dream the night after he had seen the pictures, and after thinking over it and wondering about it for nearly a week, he was driven to tell it to Bell for peace’ sake, as follows:
THE GATES AJAR.
“I thocht I was in heaven, an’ about the first body I met was wee Nellie. I didna ken her at first, but she kent me, an’ she was that glad to see me; an’ somehow I wasna the least feared. An’ she asked me if I would come an’ see her mansion, an’ she took me into a beautiful room, an’—but I couldna lay’d off till ye, so I’ll no try’t—an’ I asked her wha gied her’t, an’ I never saw onything as bonnie as her face, or heard onything as sweet as her voice, as she said, ‘Jesus! O Dan, come away an’ see Him!’ ‘No,’ said I, ‘Nellie; He’s no’ for the like o’ me.’ If ye had seen her face when she said, ‘But He is, Dan, He is; He likes you better than a’ the gold in a’ the world.’ Then she said, ‘I’ll let ye see mamma’s mansion.’ It was as bonnie as Nellie’s, but it was a’ hung round wi’ pictures, an’ Mrs. Barrie was in them a’, an’ aye some ither wi’ her—whiles ane, Nellie, or maybe Mr. Barrie, an’ whiles folk I ken, besides folk I dinna ken; but she was aye in the middle o’ the picture. An’ there was ane wi’ mysel’ an’ her in’t, an’ it was something like the ‘Angel’s Whisper,’—but the angels were awfu’ like her tae.
“An’ Nellie showed me your mansion, Bell, an’ it was braw, an’ fu’ o’ bonnie pictures just like Mrs. Barrie’s; an’ I was in some o’ them tae. An’ I noticed that ye had on your everyday working claes—your very commonest, and hardly ever on your Sabbath claes at a’.
“Weel, Nellie said to me, ‘Come an’ see your mansion, Dan.’ I was kind o’ terrified, but she could mak’ me do anything she likit. Weel, we went to what she ca’d my mansion, an’ the pictures round it were fearsome to look at, an’ I was in the middle o’ every ane; an’ there was ane where there were angels very like Mrs. Barrie, an’ Mr. Barrie, an’ you, speaking to me, an’ lookin’ at me, an’ pointin’ up,—an’ I lookit up.
“I was sae much ta’en up wi’ the pictures, I didna notice that Nellie had gaen out; but when I saw Mrs. Barrie an’ you pointin’ up in the picture, I lookit up, an’ in a moment Nellie comes in an’ says, ‘Here’s Jesus;’ an’ all at once the pictures vanished, an’ the walls were as clean an’ white as the driven snaw, an’ there was only one picture left, an’ that was Jesus. An’ somehow He didna fear me till He cam’ out o’ the picture an’ showed me His hands, an’ there were marks in the very middle o’ them, like as if nails had once been driven through them; an’ he was gaun to lay His hands on me when I wakened;—and it’s been in my head ever since, but I didna like to tell aboot it. D’ye think it means that I shouldna wear yon fine claes? or what d’ye think?”
Need I say that Bell was greatly struck with the dream, and did what she could to press home the lesson it so clearly taught? But Dan said, “Oh, but, Bell, mind He didna lay hands on me; but that was maybe my blame, for I started back. But I’m glad I’ve tell’t you, an’ ye can tell Mrs. Barrie if you like.”
NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND.
Bell did so. And although Dan was not much changed outwardly, he liked to speak to Bell about good things, and gave over sundry bad habits, and went to Mr. Walker’s kirk; although, poor man, he knew so little about the service, that when Mr. Walker said at the end of his sermon, “I will conclude by,” Dan set off, supposing that all would follow very soon, and he was astonished to find that the folk took so long to come home from the church that day. Generally his wonder had been, “Are they oot a’ready?” as Sunday forenoon had been a great day for Watty and his cronies meeting in Dan’s house and garden for a crack on bull-dogs, game-cocks, and sporting matters. But they paid this respect to religion, that they did not start for Dan’s until the church was “in,” and left so as to be home before the church was out.
Dan gave up keeping game fowls, but stuck to his other favourites, and became a quieter man; but I will not enter further into his state of mind than say that, I believe he attended the parish church, and I was told that some time after the dream, but I cannot say as to the precise date, he tried to put himself in the way of Mr. Scott of Babbie’s Mill.