“The what?” said Bell “What kind o’ apples?”
“Ask this young gentleman,” said Mr. Kirkwood, looking to James; “he’s doubtless a Latin scholar. My translation is ‘the top of the tree,’ ‘the head sheaf,’ the ‘never was beat,’ the crême-de-la-crême;” and Mr. Kirkwood left in great spirits, warmly thanking Mrs. Barrie and Bell, both of whom were much amused by the little incident.
James gave Bell the literal translation of ne plus ultra, viz. “nothing more beyond,” “nothing better,” not a little proud of having been called in as interpreter.
THE AULD SCOTTISH KAIL BROSE.
Mrs. Barrie, knowing that Bell was well acquainted with her family history, told her that Mr. Kirkwood had been making inquiries about her father, at the request of some Colonel Gordon, and asked Bell if she knew anything about the Colonel or Mr. Kirkwood.
Bell said no, but that Dan Corbett was coming to see about something in the afternoon (it was to kill the pig, but Bell was too well bred to put it so plainly), and she would ask him, as he “kenn’d a’ the folk round aboot; and Dan will be divertit when I tell him that Mr. Kirkwood said oor pitattie soup was like his game fowls, for he spake o’ them as ‘never was beat,’ an’ ‘the top o’ the tree.’ I’ve been thinkin’ that he micht mean that they were half pitattie soup, and half ‘cockie-leekie.’”
After Dan’s immediate work was over at Knowe Park, he was a good deal surprised when Bell asked him to “come in and get a cup o’ tea, for it was a cauld nicht, an’ she wantit to speak to him aboot twa or three ither things;” and he was even more astonished when Bell sat down with him. He had the diffidence sometimes so strongly developed in an outcast, and it was with difficulty that he was persuaded to draw even his chair near the table. What had taken Bell to be so gracious he could not think, nor could she. There was a something that had led her to look on Dan of late with pity, then with interest, then with a desire to try “an’ mak’ something o’ the puir creatur’;” and to-night she actually went the length of saying, “As it was very stormy ootside, he micht smoke in the kitchen if he wad blaw the smoke up the chimney as much as he could.”
Dan’s first remark after tea was over, and after he had gauged the angle at which to deliver the smoke into the chimney, was, “I think ye’ll find Knowe Park fit ye fine, but I canna comprehend what gar’d Mr. Barrie leave the auld manse.”
Bell tried to explain the matter, but the points were far too fine for Dan’s rough-and-ready way of reasoning, and he said:
“I wad ’a been very sorra if I had been him. The Government as ye speak o’ wasna meddlin’ wi’ him, and he was weel likit; an’ they say this new kirk is takin’ a heap o’ siller. I wad ’a bidden in the auld ane.”