Kenneth was a good reader, and the words seemed good and gracious even to me. When we had all been commended to God and pardon had been asked for all our transgressions, we sought our pillows, all of us feeling, no doubt, as did God's servant of old when he said, "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only, makest me to dwell in safety."
CHAPTER XVI. A MORNING AT THE MANSE.
I have a mind to take my reader next to the manse, where my Cousin James lives in peace, and, I might add, plenty; for although his fifty pounds a year would be considered by some folk a mere trifle, it suffices for his wants and leaves something forbye to give to the poor. No suppliant for charity goes from his door without a few pence to gladden his heart; and if the need be great, the pence are sometimes held back and shillings take their place. To be sure, there are many in the parish who bring him gifts several times a year. We ourselves often carry our cousin James such things as we can spare.
I remember in particular one lovely summer morning, when Walter and I were small, my mother sent us to the manse with a little gift. Walter carried a leg of mutton and I a bit of cheese and a bottle of cream. We made a merry time of it, for neither of us minded our burdens, and we laughed and chatted all the way. I doubt if the plover that was wading in the stream was happier or more care-free than were we. Walter had a bonnie face, though it was a bit sun-browned; but his dark hair set it off finely. I remember he said to me, when we had almost reached the manse, "You must quiet down now, Christie, for you have kept your mouth stretched frae ear to ear the hail morn."
"I could say as much for yourself," I replied. Whereupon he laughed again, showing two rows of fine teeth.
"Well," said he, "let us laugh while we may. We will have to sober down soon enough; leastways that seems to be the way it goes with poor folk. It is work, work, frae year's end to year's end."
"What is that you are saying, my lad?" asked the minister, coming from behind the hedgerow and starting up the path with us.
"I was but saying that poor folk maun work and aye keep at it," replied Walter, the color rising to his cheeks.