Winter Evening Tales | Page 5

give
according to my prosperings."
"Tak the world as it is, my lad, and no' as it ought to be; and never
forget that money is money's brither--an' you put two pennies in a purse
they'll creep thegither.
"But then Davie, I am free to say gold won't buy everything, and
though rich men hae long hands, they won't reach to heaven. So,
though you'll tak guid care o' yoursel', you will also gie to God the
things that are God's."
"I have been brought up in the fear of God and the love of mankind,
father. It would be an ill thing for me to slink out of life and leave the
world no better for my living."
"God bless you, lad; and the £20,000 will be to the fore when it is
called for, and you shall make it £60,000, and I'll see again Ellenmount
in the Lockerby's keeping. But you'll walk in the ways o' your fathers,
and gie without grudging of your increase."

David nodded rather impatiently. He could hardly understand the
struggle going on in his father's heart--the wish to say something that
might quiet his own conscience, and yet not make David's
unnecessarily tender. It is hard serving God and Mammon, and Andrew
Lockerby was miserable and ashamed that morning in the service.
And yet he was not selfish in the matter--that much in his favor must be
admitted. He would rather have had the fine, handsome lad he loved so
dearly going in and out his own house. He could have taken great
interest in all his further studies, and very great pride in seeing him a
successful "placed minister;" but there are few Scotsmen in whom
pride of lineage and the good of the family does not strike deeper than
individual pleasure. Andrew really believed that David's first duty was
to the house of Lockerby.
He had sacrificed a great deal toward this end all his own life, nor were
his sacrifices complete with the resignation of his only child to the
same purpose. To a man of more than sixty years of age it is a great
trial to have an unusual and unhappy atmosphere in his home; and
though Mrs. Lockerby was now tearful and patient under her
disappointment, everyone knows that tears and patience may be a
miserable kind of comfort. Then, though Janet had as yet preserved a
dour and angry silence, he knew that sooner or later she would begin a
guerilla warfare of sharp words, which he feared he would have mainly
to bear, for Janet, though his housekeeper, was also "a far-awa cousin,"
had been forty years in his house, and was not accustomed to withhold
her opinions on any subject.
Fortunately for Andrew Lockerby, Janet finally selected Mary Moir as
the Eve specially to blame in this transgression. "A proud up-head
lassie," she asserted, "that cam o' a family wha would sell their share o'
the sunshine for pounds sterling!"
From such texts as this the two women in the Lockerby house preached
little daily sermons to each other, until comfort grew out of the very
stem of their sorrow, and they began to congratulate each other that
"puir Davie was at ony rate outside the glamour o' Mary Moir's
temptations."

"For she just bewitched the laddie," said Janet, angrily; and, doubtless,
if the old laws regarding witches had been in Janet's administration it
would have gone hardly with pretty Mary Moir.

PART II.
"God's work is soon done."
It is a weary day when the youth first discovers that after all he will
only become a man; and this discovery came with a depressing weight
one morning to David, after he had been counting bank notes for three
hours. It was noon, but the gas was lit, and in the heavy air a dozen
men sat silent as statues, adding up figures and making entries. He
thought of the college courts, and the college green, of the crowded
halls, and the symposia, where both mind and body had equal refection.
There had been days when he had a part in these things, and when to
"strive with things impossible," or "to pluck honor from the pale-faced
moon," had not been unreasonable or rash; but now it almost seemed as
if Mr. Buckle's dreary gospel was a reality, and men were machines,
and life was an affair to be tabulated in averages.
He had just had a letter from Willie Caird, too, and it had irritated him.
The wounds of a friend may be faithful, but they are not always
welcome. David determined to drop the correspondence. Willie was
going one way and he another. They might never see each other again;
and--
If they should meet one day, If both should not forget They