The Merry Men | Page 6

wi' them. A sair
day they had of it; their hands was never aff the sheets, and it perishin'
cauld - ower cauld to snaw; and aye they would get a bit nip o' wind,
and awa' again, to pit the emp'y hope into them. Eh, man! but they had
a sair day for the last o't! He would have had a prood, prood heart that
won ashore upon the back o' that.'
'And were all lost?' I cried. 'God held them!'
'Wheesht!' he said sternly. 'Nane shall pray for the deid on my
hearth-stane.'
I disclaimed a Popish sense for my ejaculation; and he seemed to
accept my disclaimer with unusual facility, and ran on once more upon
what had evidently become a favourite subject.

'We fand her in Sandag Bay, Rorie an' me, and a' thae braws in the
inside of her. There's a kittle bit, ye see, about Sandag; whiles the sook
rins strong for the Merry Men; an' whiles again, when the tide's makin'
hard an' ye can hear the Roost blawin' at the far-end of Aros, there
comes a back-spang of current straucht into Sandag Bay. Weel, there's
the thing that got the grip on the CHRIST-ANNA. She but to have
come in ram-stam an' stern forrit; for the bows of her are aften under,
and the back-side of her is clear at hie-water o' neaps. But, man! the
dunt that she cam doon wi' when she struck! Lord save us a'! but it's an
unco life to be a sailor - a cauld, wanchancy life. Mony's the gliff I got
mysel' in the great deep; and why the Lord should hae made yon unco
water is mair than ever I could win to understand. He made the vales
and the pastures, the bonny green yaird, the halesome, canty land -
And now they shout and sing to Thee, For Thou hast made them glad,
as the Psalms say in the metrical version. No that I would preen my
faith to that clink neither; but it's bonny, and easier to mind. "Who go
to sea in ships," they hae't again -
And in Great waters trading be, Within the deep these men God's works
And His great wonders see.
Weel, it's easy sayin' sae. Maybe Dauvit wasnae very weel acquant wi'
the sea. But, troth, if it wasnae prentit in the Bible, I wad whiles be
temp'it to think it wasnae the Lord, but the muckle, black deil that made
the sea. There's naething good comes oot o't but the fish; an' the
spentacle o' God riding on the tempest, to be shure, whilk would be
what Dauvit was likely ettling at. But, man, they were sair wonders that
God showed to the CHRIST-ANNA - wonders, do I ca' them?
Judgments, rather: judgments in the mirk nicht among the draygons o'
the deep. And their souls - to think o' that - their souls, man, maybe no
prepared! The sea - a muckle yett to hell!'
I observed, as my uncle spoke, that his voice was unnaturally moved
and his manner unwontedly demonstrative. He leaned forward at these
last words, for example, and touched me on the knee with his spread
fingers, looking up into my face with a certain pallor, and I could see

that his eyes shone with a deep-seated fire, and that the lines about his
mouth were drawn and tremulous.
Even the entrance of Rorie, and the beginning of our meal, did not
detach him from his train of thought beyond a moment. He
condescended, indeed, to ask me some questions as to my success at
college, but I thought it was with half his mind; and even in his
extempore grace, which was, as usual, long and wandering, I could find
the trace of his preoccupation, praying, as he did, that God would
'remember in mercy fower puir, feckless, fiddling, sinful creatures here
by their lee-lane beside the great and dowie waters.'
Soon there came an interchange of speeches between him and Rorie.
'Was it there?' asked my uncle.
'Ou, ay!' said Rorie.
I observed that they both spoke in a manner of aside, and with some
show of embarrassment, and that Mary herself appeared to colour, and
looked down on her plate. Partly to show my knowledge, and so relieve
the party from an awkward strain, partly because I was curious, I
pursued the subject.
'You mean the fish?' I asked.
'Whatten fish?' cried my uncle. 'Fish, quo' he! Fish! Your een are fu' o'
fatness, man; your heid dozened wi' carnal leir. Fish! it's a bogle!'
He spoke with great vehemence, as though angry; and perhaps I was
not very willing to be put down so shortly, for young men are
disputatious. At least I remember I retorted hotly, crying