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an' I'm no' worthy, I ken, but I pit up a bit prayer wi' him ye mauna think I'm boastin', sir, but I brocht him to Christ, an' when I think on't noo, it's lichtsome, an' I'm minded o' that simmer sun on the Gowden Gate. Ye'll write to him an' tell him we'll sing a psalm thegither yet." My promise given and Andrew Mathieson's address taken, Archie lay silent for a little time.
Well, well, a stranger cam' in one day and asked refreshment and got it, and then he plankit down a gowden guinea and waited for his change, for the stranger was a ganger, and here was a capture just waitin' for him.
And he wanted to gie me snuff first, and I wouldna hev that; and then he offered me a gowden guinea, but I was no sic awpy, and to bring you here to-night, and cross the candle wi' pins, to call your lover in. And he said he's a great lord, and in luve wi' thee." "And you refused him?" "Well for thee I did, lass," says Mother Carke.
I wouldna hae thocht wi' her bringing up she could hae swithered for a moment but it's the auld, auld story; where the deil canna go by himsel' he sends a woman. And David Lockerby will tyne his inheritance for a pair o' blue e'en and a handfu' o' gowden curls. Waly! waly! but the children o' Esau live for ever." "Mary said," "I dinna want to hear what Mary said.
It was but for a moment; for the very next words from the lips of the girl that was to him little more than a house-broom, set him face to face with reality the one terror of the unreal. "Eh, maister, sir," said Dawtie, with the tears in her eyes, and now at last breaking down in her English, "dinna ye ken 'at ye hae to gie the man 'at aucht that gowden bicker, the chance o' buyin' 't back?"
Suddenly she pointed with uplifted hand: "Oh, faither, I see oor Elsie's face an' the token's in her haun', an' it's a' bricht wi' gowden licht. She's biddin' us a' hame me, an' faither, an' Robin " and she passed into the homeland bearing the prodigal's name with her up to God. I gently closed her eyes. Donald stood long beside the bed; then, taking his son into his arms, he said
That gowden ball, gowden like the sun before it drops, that topped the pole, it fell! I marked it fall, and the heads dodge, and it rolled upon the ground.... And then all went out like a candle that you blaw upon. I was kneeling by the water, and Jock's sark in my hand, and the lav'rock singing, and that was all." "I have heard tell of that," said Strickland. "It was near Braemar."
And when she was deein', she askit for it, and she dee'd wi' it in her haun'. An' that verra nicht, when Donald an' me was sittin' fon'lin' her gowden curls an' biddin' ane anither no' to greet for ae broken hairt can comfort anither broken hairt he slippit the token frae oot her puir cauld wee haun', an' he read the writin' that's on't oot lood: 'This do in remembrance of Me, an' he says, 'I'll dae it in remembrance o' them baith, mither o' Christ an' oor Elsie an' when I show forth the Lord's death till He come, I'll aye think o' them baith, an' think o' them baith thegither in the yonderland Christ an' oor Elsie an' me an' you tae, mither, a' thegither in the Faither's hoose. An' a' the time o' the funeral he hauded the token ticht, an' he keepit aye sayin' till himsel', 'Christ an' oor Elsie an' us a'.
"He was an auld man when he married her, a fell auld man wi' a muckle voice you could hear him rowting from the top o' the Kye-skairs," she said; "but for her, it appears she was a perfit wonder. It was gentle blood she had, Mr. Archie, for it was your ain. The country-side gaed gyte about her and her gowden hair.
"Ye'll pray wi' me," he said gravely, "but it'll no' be the closin' prayer. I'm wearin' awa fast, but I'll no' leave ye till the morn, I'm dootin'. Pit up a bit prayer noo but there's ae thing dinna mind the Maister o' His promise to come again an' receive me till Himsel' no' that it isna a gowden word; but I want it keepit till the last an' it's the last word I want to hear.
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