In the meantime, Eric and Alick had introduced themselves, and set off to visit the stables.
Clara Ross was dressed in the height of the then prevailing fashion, and the number of flounces on her dress struck Nora with surprise, and, for the moment, made her ashamed of her own neat though plain plaid frock. The girls soon became friends, Clara chatting away about Edinburgh and all its attractions.
"Do you go to many parties?" she questioned Nora.
The child smiled.
"Parties, Clara? How could we? There are so few people live here, and the distance from one house to another is too great for any but grown-up people to go in the evening. Oh, no, we never go to what you call parties. But we don't miss them a bit. We have plenty of fun at home, and we play all sorts of games; and sometimes in the evening, aunt plays and sings to us; and in summer, we have out-of-door games, and picnics, and drives. Oh, I assure you, we are never dull, never."
Clara shrugged her shoulders. "Ah well, you see, you know no other kind of life; but as for me, I would die, if I lived here. Why, Laura and Jane, my elder sisters, say life here is not life at all, only vegetation. The poor people can have no ideas, nothing to take them out of themselves."
"Vegetation!" repeated Nora. "Why, Clara, I'm sure you don't know what you are talking about. If you visited in the cottages, you would see how clever and thoughtful the people are; fond of their country, I grant you, as who would not be?" said the girl with the enthusiasm of a young Highlander. "And fond of their Bibles, too. But they have plenty of interests that carry their thoughts to other places and other lands, as well as their own. I know aunt would tell you so. Why, there's hardly a family in the village near us but some of them are abroad, or, at all events, away in town—some in Perth, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, London, and in America as well. Oh! Life here is not vegetation, I assure you;" and Nora's shyness vanished as she stood up for her people and her country.
"Indeed, Nora, you are right," said Mrs. Forbes, who, unknown to the girls, had entered and heard their conversation. "It is only foolish people who talk that way. Believe me, Clara, that life lived truly in such a place as this, is as full, as noble, as great as that lived elsewhere. Nay, I question if those who speak of such lives as vegetation know anything at all of what real life is, or value it as God's great gift. True, many of our people have not many books; but the few they have are well read and thoroughly understood. And though they know nothing of life as spent in towns, that does not prove that their minds are narrow. The truly narrow minds, Clara, are those which have no resources within themselves which can enable them to spend time profitably and pleasantly, without the constant excitement of society.—But there, now, we must not waste all the day in talking; suppose you join the boys in their game of battledoor and shuttlecock in the library?"
Clara tossed her head a little at the proposal, muttering something about childish; but seeing Nora's delight at the idea, she yielded, and soon the house resounded with the laughter of young voices, in which Clara's was loudest. With none of her foolish companions to laugh at her, the girl was good-natured and childlike; but long ere they parted, Nora got a vivid account of town pleasures, parties, and dress, which certainly gave her a great longing for a peep at them all; and when she told Clara about her beautiful diadem, her companion's interest was much excited.
"A diadem, Nora! How lovely! They are quite the fashion just now. You must come to visit us soon, and learn town ways and manners; and then in a few years, when you are come out, you will wear the diadem at parties. How I wish I had one! Do you know, when I look at you I see you have a head and brow just suited for a crown."