“Grant thee thy heart’s wish and fulfil
Thy thoughts and counsels wise.
In thy salvation we will joy—”
“Maybe the Lord has minded on me, and sent me this word. I will take it for a sign.”
The two friends went out into the dark, as Saunners said, “strengthened by the occasion,” but it was not of Jacob, nor his blessing nor his banishment that they “discoorsed” together as they jogged along, sitting among the straw in Peter’s cart. Peter was inclined to be sleepy after the long day, and had he been alone he would have committed himself to the sense and judgment of his mare Tibbie, and slept all the way home. But his friend “wasna ane o’ the sleepy kind,” as he said, and he had something to say.
“What ailed John Beaton the nicht, think ye? He’s ready eneuch to put in his word for ordinar, but he never opened his mouth through a’ the exerceese, and was awa’ like a shot ere ever we were off our knees, with not a word to onybody, though he’s but just hame.”
“Ay, that was just it. He would be thinkin’ o’ his mither, puir bodie, at hame her lane.”
“Ay, that micht account for his haste, and it micht weel hae keepit him at hame a’thegither, to my thinkin’. But that needna hae keepit his mouth shut since he was there. It’s no’ his way to hide his licht aneath a bushel as a general thing.”
“It wad be a peety gin he did that. Licht is needed among us,” said Peter, who admired in his friend the gift of easy speaking, which he did not possess himself.
“Oh! ay, that’s what I’m sayin’. And what for had he naething to say the nicht? I doot it’s nae just as it should be with him, or he wad hae been readier with his word.”
“There’s sic a thing as being ower-ready wi’ ane’s word. There’s a time to keep silence an’ a time to speak, according to Solomon. But word or no word I’m no’ feart for John Beaton.”
“Weel, I canna just say that I’m feart for him mysel’; and as ye say, he’s maybe whiles ower-ready to put in his word wi’ aulder folk. But gaein’ here and there among a kind o’ folk, he has need to be watchfu’ and to use his privileges when he has the opportunity.”