“Whisht, Davie lad, and take the good of things. It is a good cause anyway.”
“Oh, grannie, grannie! as though the cause had anything to do with it, at least with the most of them!”
“Well, never mind. You can take the good of the play without making folk think it’s for the cause. And you’ll need to help the preparations. As for Katie, I doubt I canna so well spare her—except for the day itself.”
The last few words had been between these two when the others had gone out of the room. Grannie had a little of the spirit of which Katie had a good deal. She was sociably inclined, and, though it troubled her little that she or those belonging to her should be called odd, she know it troubled Katie, and she wanted her to have the harmless enjoyment that other young girls had, and to take the good of them. And she desired for Davie, also, that he should be able to do and to enjoy something else besides the work of the farm, which was certainly his first duty. But she knew that his grandfather’s desire to keep him from evil companionship might keep him also from such companionship as might correct some faults into which he was in danger of falling, being left too much to himself, and might do him good in other ways. So, whenever a fair opportunity occurred to give the young people a taste of amusement which seemed harmless and enjoyable, she quietly gave her voice in favour of it. And in her opinion this was one of the occasions.
“If we are to refuse to put a hand to any good work till all who wish to help are models of discretion, we’ll do little in this world, Davie lad. And you’ll do what you can to make the occasion what it ought to be for the honour of the town, since it is to be in Gershom.”
“Oh, grannie, grannie! What would folk say to hear you? As though the whole town werena agog for the fun of it, and as though I could make a straw’s difference.”
“You can make a difference to your mother and Katie and the bairns. And I dinna like to hear you laughing at folk, as though you didna believe in them and their doing. We canna all be among the wise of the earth, and I would like Katie to get the good of this—she who gets so little in the way of pleasure.”
“Oh, Katie! She’s better at home than holding sham committee meetings with a parcel of idle folk. There’s plenty to do it all without her.”
“Oh, as to committee meetings, I doubt she could be ill spared to many of them, but for the day itself, to hear the speaking and see the show like the rest. And you are not to spoil it to her beforehand, Davie.”
“Well, I winna, grannie. It will be great fun I dare say.”