United States or Angola ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
She would not go back to her own home, though we tried to persuade her, and the Scotch Preacher's wife was visiting in the city, so she could not go there. But after I found myself driving homeward with the girl while McAlway went over the hill to tell her family the mood of action passed. It struck me suddenly, "What will Harriet say?"
As I drove up to the bridge, the Scotch Preacher put one hand on the reins. I stopped the horse on the embankment and we both stepped out. "She would undoubtedly have come down this road to the river," McAlway said in a low voice. It was growing dark. When I walked out on the bridge my legs were strangely unsteady; a weight seemed pressing on my breast so that my breath came hard.
"So you think we might possibly aspire to the position?" laughed Mrs. Starkweather. Upon this I told them of the trouble in our household and asked them to come down and help us enjoy Dr. McAlway and the goose. When I left, after much more pleasant talk, they both came with me to the door seeming greatly improved in spirits. "You've given us something to live for, Mr. Grayson," said Mrs.
At the hill bridge who should I meet but the Scotch Preacher himself, God bless him! "Well, well, David," he exclaimed heartily, "Merry Christmas." I drew my face down and said solemnly: "Dr. McAlway, I am on a most serious errand." "Why, now, what's the matter?" He was all sympathy at once. "I am out in the highways trying to compel the poor of this neighbourhood to come to our feast."
"Then it's all decided," she said; "he isn't going." "No," said the Scotch Preacher, "it's not decided yet." "Dr. McAlway hasn't made up his mind," I said, "whether Carlstrom is to go or not." But the Scotch Preacher was in no mood for joking. "David," he said, "did you ever know anything about the homesickness of the foreigner?"
It seemed as if, at any instant, it must burst into some fearful excess of sound. Suddenly we heard a voice in half-articulate exclamation. I turned, every nerve strained to the uttermost. A figure, seemingly materialized out of darkness and silence, was moving on the bridge. "Oh! McAlway," a voice said. Then I heard the Scotch Preacher in low tones. "Have you seen Anna Williams?"
When he came in to call on us that evening after supper I could see that he had something important on his mind; but I let him get to it in his own way. "David," he said finally, "Carlstrom, the gunsmith, is going home to Sweden." "At last!" I exclaimed. Dr. McAlway paused a moment and then said hesitatingly: "He says he is going." Harriet laughed.
I never shall forget how Doctor McAlway drew himself up nor the majesty that looked from his eye. "Old Toombs!" he said in a voice that thrilled one to the bone, "Old Toombs! Have you no faith, that you stand in the place of Almighty God and measure punishments?" Before we left it was past midnight and we drove home, almost silent, in the darkness.
From within, wafted through the window, came the faint odour of flowers, and the occasional minor intonation of someone speaking and finally our own Scotch Preacher! I could not see him, but there lay in the cadences of his voice a peculiar note of peacefulness, of finality. The day before he died Dr. North had said: "I want McAlway to conduct my funeral, not as a minister but as a man.
I have seen our Scotch Preacher in many difficult places, but never have I seen him rise to greater heights than he did that night. It is not in his preaching that Doctor McAlway excels, but what a power he is among men! He was like some stern old giant, standing there and holding up the portals of civilization.
Word Of The Day