Prester John | Page 9

to
the merchant service. Archie Leslie, who was a year my elder, was
destined for the law, so he left Kirkcaple for an Edinburgh office,

where he was also to take out classes at the college. I remained on at
school till I sat alone by myself in the highest class - a position of little
dignity and deep loneliness. I had grown a tall, square-set lad, and my
prowess at Rugby football was renowned beyond the parishes of
Kirkcaple and Portincross. To my father I fear I was a disappointment.
He had hoped for something in his son more bookish and sedentary,
more like his gentle, studious self.
On one thing I was determined: I should follow a learned profession.
The fear of being sent to an office, like so many of my schoolfellows,
inspired me to the little progress I ever made in my studies. I chose the
ministry, not, I fear, out of any reverence for the sacred calling, but
because my father had followed it before me. Accordingly I was sent at
the age of sixteen for a year's finishing at the High School of Edinburgh,
and the following winter began my Arts course at the university.
If Fate had been kinder to me, I think I might have become a scholar.
At any rate I was just acquiring a taste for philosophy and the dead
languages when my father died suddenly of a paralytic shock, and I had
to set about earning a living.
My mother was left badly off, for my poor father had never been able
to save much from his modest stipend. When all things were settled, it
turned out that she might reckon on an income of about fifty pounds a
year. This was not enough to live on, however modest the household,
and certainly not enough to pay for the colleging of a son. At this point
an uncle of hers stepped forward with a proposal. He was a well-to-do
bachelor, alone in the world, and he invited my mother to live with him
and take care of his house. For myself he proposed a post in some
mercantile concern, for he had much influence in the circles of
commerce. There was nothing for it but to accept gratefully. We sold
our few household goods, and moved to his gloomy house in Dundas
Street. A few days later he announced at dinner that he had found for
me a chance which might lead to better things.
'You see, Davie,' he explained, 'you don't know the rudiments of
business life. There's no house in the country that would take you in
except as a common clerk, and you would never earn much more than a

hundred pounds a year all your days. If you want to better your future
you must go abroad, where white men are at a premium. By the mercy
of Providence I met yesterday an old friend, Thomas Mackenzie, who
was seeing his lawyer about an estate he is bidding for. He is the head
of one of the biggest trading and shipping concerns in the world -
Mackenzie, Mure, and Oldmeadows - you may have heard the name.
Among other things he has half the stores in South Africa, where they
sell everything from Bibles to fish-hooks. Apparently they like men
from home to manage the stores, and to make a long story short, when I
put your case to him, he promised you a place. I had a wire from him
this morning confirming the offer. You are to be assistant storekeeper
at -' (my uncle fumbled in his pocket, and then read from the yellow
slip) 'at Blaauwildebeestefontein. There's a mouthful for you.'
In this homely way I first heard of a place which was to be the theatre
of so many strange doings.
'It's a fine chance for you,' my uncle continued. 'You'll only be assistant
at first, but when you have learned your job you'll have a store of your
own. Mackenzie's people will pay you three hundred pounds a year,
and when you get a store you'll get a percentage on sales. It lies with
you to open up new trade among the natives. I hear that Blaauw -
something or other, is in the far north of the Transvaal, and I see from
the map that it is in a wild, hilly country. You may find gold or
diamonds up there, and come back and buy Portincross House.' My
uncle rubbed his hands and smiled cheerily.
Truth to tell I was both pleased and sad. If a learned profession was
denied me I vastly preferred a veld store to an Edinburgh office stool.
Had I not been still under the shadow of my father's death I might have
welcomed the chance of