Winter Evening Tales | Page 9

hitherto a vague, restless sense of want.
"I am the poorest rich man and the most miserable failure, Willie Caird, that ever you asked yon fearsome question of--and I know it. I have achieved millions, and I am a conscious bankrupt to my own soul. I have wasted my youth, neglected my talents and opportunities, and whatever the world may call me I am a wretched breakdown. I have made money--plenty of it--and it does not pay me. What am I to do?"
"You ken, Davie, my dear, dear lad, what advice the Lord Jesus gave to the rich man--'distribute unto the poor--and come, follow me!'"
Then up and down Princes street, and away under the shadow of the Castle Hill, Willie and David walked and talked, till the first sunbeams touched St. Leonard's Crags. If it was a long walk a grand work was laid out in it.
"You shall be more blessed than your namesake," said Willie, "for though David gathered the gold, and the wood, and the stone, Solomon builded therewith. Now, an' it please God, you shall do your ain work, and see the topstone brought on with rejoicing."
Then at David's command, workmen gathered in companies, and some of the worst "vennels" in old Glasgow were torn down; and the sunshine flooded "wynds" it had scarcely touched for centuries, and a noble building arose that was to be a home for children that had no home. And the farms of Ellenmount fed them, and the fleeces of Lockerby clothed them, and into every young hand was put a trade that would win it honest bread.
In a short time even this undertaking began to be too small for David's energies and resources, and he joined hands with Willie in many other good works, and gave not only freely of his gold, but also of his time and labor. The old eloquence that stirred his classmates in St. Andrew's Hall, "till they would have followed him to the equator" began to stir the cautious Glasgow traders to the bottom of their hearts, and their pocketbooks; and men who didn't want to help in a crusade against drunkenness, or in a crusade for the spread of the Gospel, stopped away from Glasgow City Hall when David Lockerby filled the chair at a public meeting and started a subscription list with ��1000 down on the table.
But there were two old ladies that never stopped away, though one of them always declared "Master Davie had fleeched her last bawbee out o' her pouch;" and the other generally had her little whimper about Davie "waring his substance upon ither folks' bairns."
"There's bonnie Bessie Lament, Janet; an' he would marry her we might live to see his ain sons and daughters in the old house."
"'Deed, then, ma'am, our Davie has gotten him a name better than that o' sons an' dochters; and though I am sair disappointed in him--"
"You shouldn't say that, Janet; he made a gran' speech the day."
"A speech isna' a sermon, ma'am; though I'll ne'er belittle a speech wi' a ��1000 argument."
"And there was Deacon Moir, Janet, who didna approve o' the scheme, and who would therefore gie nothing at a'."
"The Deacon is sae godly that God doesna get a chance to improve his condition, ma'am. But for a' o' Deacon Moir's disapproval I'se count on the good work going on."
"'Deed yes, Janet, and though our Davie should ne'er marry at a'--"
"There'll be generations o' lads an' lasses, ma'am, that will rise up in auld Scotland an' go up an' down through a' the warld a' ca' David Lockerby 'blessed.'"

FRANZ M��LLER'S WIFE.
"Franz, good morning. Whose philosophy is it now? Hegel, Spinosa, Kant or Dugald Stewart?"
"None of them. I am reading Faust."
"Worse and worse. Better wrestle with philosophies than lose yourself in the clouds. At any rate, if the poets are to send the philosophers to the right about, stick to Shakespeare."
"He is too material. He can't get rid of men and women."
"They are a little better, I should think, than Mephisto. Come, Franz, condescend to cravats and kid gloves, and let us go and see my cousin Christine Stromberg."
"I do not know the young lady."
"Of course not. She has just returned from a Munich school. Her brother Max was at the Lyndons' great party, you remember?"
"I don't remember, Louis. In white cravats and black coats all men look alike."
"But you will go?"
"If you wish it, yes. There are some uncut reviews on the table: amuse yourself while I dress."
"Thanks, I have my cigar case. I will take a smoke and think of Christine."
For some reason quite beyond analysis, Franz did not like this speech. He had never seen Christine Stromberg, but yet he half resented the careless use of her name. It fell upon some soul consciousness like a familiar and personal name, and