changing the original “Cambrian” to “Moorland,” it did not take, and Blinkbonny on its personal and social and “soft” side was ready to “entertain” Mr. Walker.
He carried the news of his own appointment to the manse, and although it surprised Mr. Barrie at the moment, he heartily wished him every success and comfort, and added that he would find the manse at his service by the time he was inducted. Mr. Walker assured Mr. Barrie that there was no hurry, as “he did not see that they could possibly come in until after the harvest was past at Middlemoor.”
JEWS AND BRITHERS.
When Bell heard that Mr. Walker was coming to Blinkbonny, she forgot her usual good manners. “Mr. Walker!—Walker o’ Middlemoor!—fat Walker’s gotten the kirk, has he? He’s a slow coach—pity the folk that gangs to hear him; but ’deed they’ll no’ mony gang. He minds me o’ Cauldwell’s speech at the cattle show. After Sir John palavered away about the grand stock, and praised Cauldwell for gettin’ sae money prizes, the decent man just said, ‘Sir John and gentlemen, thank ye a’ kindly. I’m nae hand o’ makin’ a speech. I may be a man among sheep, but I’m a sheep among men.’” And Bell showed how changeable human affections are; for although Mr. Walker and she had been hand-and-glove friends, she summed up with, “Mr. Walker will never fill Mr. Barrie’s shoon [shoes]. I never could thole[11] him an’ his filthy tobacco smoke. Ugh! ma puir kitchen will sune be in a bonny mess; an’ I dinna ken what to think about the things in the garden an’ outhouses that are ours, for, as Mrs. Walker ance said to me, her motto was, ‘Count like Jews and ’gree like brithers.’”
[11] Endure.
But when the settling up came, Bell found Mrs. Walker “easy dealt wi’,”—not only satisfied with her valuation, but very complimentary as to the state in which everything was left, and very agreeable—very.
CHAPTER VII.
OUT OF THE OLD HOME AND INTO THE NEW.
“Confide ye aye in Providence, for Providence is kind,
An’ bear ye a’ life’s changes wi’ a calm an’ tranquil mind;