United States or Côte d'Ivoire ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
While they stood looking at one another, and at Beeny Liston's door, a voice that seemed incredibly rough, loud and harsh, jarred upon them; it was Sandy Liston, who came in from Leith, shouting: "Fifty pounds for salvage, lasses! is na thaat better than staying cooard-like aside the women?" "Whisht! whisht!" cried Christie.
"The wife's awa' to Granton, Beeny Liston they ca' her there's his house," added Jean, pointing up the row. "Ay," said the fisherman, "I ken he lived there." "Lived there!" cried Christie Johnstone. "Oh, what's this?" "Freends," said the man, gravely, "his boat is driving keel uppermost in Kircauldy Bay. We passed her near enough to read the name upon her."
If my reader has seen and heard Mademoiselle Rachel utter her famous Sortez, in "Virginie," he knows exactly with what a gesture and tone the Johnstone uttered this word. "Hech! what a spite Flucker Johnstone's dochter has taen against us." Christie. "Scairt!" "Aweel! what's a' your paession, my boenny woman?" Christie. "Scairt!" Beeny retired before the thunder and lightning of indignant virtue.
Every eye was strained toward the Old Town, and soon the poor woman was seen about to emerge from it; but she was walking in her usual way, and they felt she could not carry her person so if she knew. At the last house she was seen to stop and speak to a fisherman and his wife that stood at their own door. "They are telling her," was then the cry. Beeny Liston then proceeded on her way.
On this, Christie, looking carefully at all the others except Beeny, inquired with an air of simple curiosity: "Can onybody tell me wha Liston Carnie's drunken wife is speakin' till? no to ony decent lass, though. Na! ye ken she wad na hae th' impudence!" "Oh, ye ken fine I'm speakin' till yoursel'." Here the horns clashed together. "To me, woman?" Giest!" Beeny Liston.
"Beeny," said the clergyman, "I have sorrowful tidings." "Tell me them, sir," said she, unmoved. "Is it a deeth?" added she, quietly. He entered her house. "Aweel," said the woman to the others, "it maun be some far-awa cousin, or the like, for Liston an' me hae nae near freends.
Then all the fishboys struck up a dismal chant of victory. "Yoo-hoo Custy's won the day Beeny's scairtit," going up on the last syllable. Christie moved slowly away toward her own house, but before she could reach the door she began to whimper little fool. Thereat chorus of young Athenians chanted: "Yu-hoo! come back, Beeny, ye'll maybe win yet.
Eastward past Beeny the cliffs gradually rise, till at High Cliff they reach the height of 700 feet; it needs some enthusiasm for a pedestrian to keep to the coast-line, though every mile has its grandeur. Beyond Cambeak lies the delightful Crackington Cove, which will some day become a watering-place; it stands at the mouth of a verdant valley with a stream like that of the Valency.
In the middle of this, Flucker Johnstone came hastily in from the Old Town and told them he had seen the wife, Beeny Liston, coming through from Granton. The sympathy of all was instantly turned in this direction. "She would hear the news." "It would fall on her like a thunderclap." "What would become of her?"
Beeny Liston, looking at everybody but Christie, addressed the natives who were congregating thus: "Did ever ye hear o' a decent lass taking the herrin' oot o' the men's mooths? is yon a woman's pairt, I'm asking ye?"
Word Of The Day