The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales | Page 6

filled an ink bottle when at last he went off to Edinburgh to study
his father's profession. Five years after that did I tide at Birtwhistle's,
and when I left had become cock myself, for I was wiry and as tough as
whalebone, though I never ran to weight and sinew like my great
predecessor. It was in Jubilee Year that I left Birtwhistle's, and then for
three years I stayed at home learning the ways of the cattle; but still the
ships and the armies were wrestling, and still the great shadow of
Bonaparte lay across the country. How could I guess that I too should
have a hand in lifting that shadow for ever from our people?


CHAPTER II.
COUSIN EDIE OF EYEMOUTH.
Some years before, when I was still but a lad, there had come over to us
upon a five weeks' visit the only daughter of my father's brother. Willie
Calder had settled at Eyemouth as a maker of fishing nets, and he had
made more out of twine than ever we were like to do out of the
whin-bushes and sand-links of West Inch. So his daughter, Edie Calder,
came over with a braw red frock and a five shilling bonnet, and a kist
full of things that brought my dear mother's eyes out like a partan's. It
was wonderful to see her so free with money, and she but a slip of a girl,
paying the carrier man all that he asked and a whole twopence over, to
which he had no claim. She made no more of drinking ginger-beer than
we did of water, and she would have her sugar in her tea and butter
with her bread just as if she had been English.
I took no great stock of girls at that time, for it was hard for me to see

what they had been made for. There were none of us at Birtwhistle's
that thought very much of them; but the smallest laddies seemed to
have the most sense, for after they began to grow bigger they were not
so sure about it. We little ones were all of one mind: that a creature that
couldn't fight and was aye carrying tales, and couldn't so much as shy a
stone without flapping its arm like a rag in the wind, was no use for
anything. And then the airs that they would put on, as if they were
mother and father rolled into one; for ever breaking into a game with
"Jimmy, your toe's come through your boot," or "Go home, you dirty
boy, and clean yourself," until the very sight of them was weariness.
So when this one came to the steading at West Inch I was not best
pleased to see her. I was twelve at the time (it was in the holidays) and
she eleven, a thin, tallish girl with black eyes and the queerest ways.
She was for ever staring out in front of her with her lips parted, as if she
saw something wonderful; but when I came behind her and looked the
same way, I could see nothing but the sheep's trough or the midden, or
father's breeches hanging on a clothes-line. And then if she saw a lump
of heather or bracken, or any common stuff of that sort, she would
mope over it, as if it had struck her sick, and cry, "How sweet! how
perfect!" just as though it had been a painted picture. She didn't like
games, but I used to make her play "tig" and such like; but it was no
fun, for I could always catch her in three jumps, and she could never
catch me, though she would come with as much rustle and flutter as ten
boys would make. When I used to tell her that she was good for
nothing, and that her father was a fool to bring her up like that, she
would begin to cry, and say that I was a rude boy, and that she would
go home that very night, and never forgive me as long as she lived. But
in five minutes she had forgot all about it. What was strange was that
she liked me a deal better than I did her, and she would never leave me
alone; but she was always watching me and running after me, and then
saying, "Oh, here you are!" as if it were a surprise.
But soon I found that there was good in her too. She used sometimes to
give me pennies, so that once I had four in my pocket all at the same
time; but the best part of her was the stories that she could tell. She was
sore frightened of frogs, so I would bring