It was a day to be remembered. But it was not all pleasure to every one, though every moment was full of delight to Marjorie. The bairns were wild and not easily managed, and the mistress “had her ain adoes among them.” Of course the tawse had been left at home, and the sternness of countenance which was the right and proper thing in the school, the mistress felt would be out of place among the hills, even supposing the bairns would heed it, which was doubtful. As for setting limits beyond which they were not to wander, that was easily done, but with all the treasures of the hills awaiting discovery, was it likely that these limits would be kept in mind?
The mistress strode after the first wandering group, and called after the second, and then she declared that “they maun gang their ain gait, and tak’ their chance o’ being lost on the hills,” and she said this with such solemnity of countenance as to convince the little ones who remained that they at least had best bide where they were. It was not likely, after all, that anything more serious than wet feet or perhaps torn clothes would happen to them—serious enough troubles in their own way, and likely to be followed by appropriate pains and penalties without the intervention of the mistress. At any rate they must just take their chance.
So, she “put them off her mind,” and with the other bairns, and Allison carrying Marjorie in her arms, wandered for a while among “the Stanes.”
Seven great stones there were, arranged around another greater still; and they might well wonder, as many had wondered before them, how they had been brought there, and by whom, and for what purpose. That is, Marjorie wondered, and told them what her father thought, and Robin; and Allison listened and smiled, and wondered too, since she was called to think about it at all.
As for the mistress, the “Stanin’ Stanes” were just the Stanin’ Stanes to her. She accepted them as she did the hills themselves, and the heather, and the distant mountains; and she objected decidedly to the minister’s opinion as announced by his little daughter.
“We are maybe standing in a temple where, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the folk worshipped an unknown God,” said Marjorie.
The mistress vehemently dissented.
“What should put the like o’ that in the minister’s head? It’s an ill thing for ane to try to be wise aboon what’s written.”
“But it’s all in a book,” said the child eagerly. “Robin read it to my mother and me. And in the Bible ye ken there were folk seeking Him, ‘if haply they might feel after Him and find Him.’ And maybe they were doing that here.”
But the mistress would not hear such a thing said.