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In times of joy Salemina, Francesca, and I occasionally have our trifling differences of opinion, but in hours of affliction we are as one flesh. An all-wise Providence sent us Jane Grieve for fear that we should be too happy in Pettybaw. Plans made in heaven for the discipline of sinful human flesh are always successful, and this was no exception.
"She'd see that Inchcawdy canna compeer wi' us; we've patronised her weel in Pettybaw!" Truly, as Stevenson says, 'he who goes fishing among the Scots peasantry with condescension for a bait will have an empty basket by evening. At eleven o'clock a boy arrived at Bide-a-Wee with an interesting-looking package, which I promptly opened.
This morning we drove to Pettybaw Sands, Francesca and Salemina following by the footpath and meeting us on the shore.
I might as well be living in a Gaboriau novel, I thought, and went up into my little painting and writing room to address a programme of the Pettybaw celebration to Lady Baird, watch for the glimpse of Willie coming down the loaning, and see if I could discover where Francesca went from the post-office.
"Susanna Crum's father! How curious that he should live here!" I murmured; and at this moment the sun came out, and shone full, or at least almost full, on our future home. "Pettybaw! Petit bois, I suppose," said Salemina; "and there, to be sure, it is, the 'little wood' yonder." We drove to the Pettybaw Inn and Posting Establishment, and, alighting, dismissed the driver.
There is a certain large orphanage in the vicinity, in which we had all taken an interest, chiefly because our friends the Macraes of Pettybaw House were among its guardians. It seems that Lady Rowardennan of the Castle had promised the orphans, en bloc, that those who passed through an entire year without once falling into falsehood should have a treat or festival of their own choosing.
"Of course, if there is any district in Scotland where for any reason droughts are possible, that is where we wish to settle," I whispered to Salemina; "though, so far as I can see, the Strathdee crops are up to their knees in mud. Here is another wee village. What is this place, driver?" "Pettybaw, mam; a fine toun!" "Will there be apartments to let there?" "I cudna say, mam."
Silence, thou Grieve and others, false prophets of disaster! Who now could say that Pettybaw bonfire had been badly built, or that its fifteen tons of coal and twenty cords of wood had been unphilosophically heaped together? The flames rushed toward the sky with ruddy blaze, shining with weird effect against the black fir-trees and the blacker night. Three cheers more! God save the Queen!
Pettybaw's, I suppose, was counted as a flash in the pan, but not one of the hundred patriots climbing the mountain-side would have acknowledged it; to us the good name of the kingdom of Fife and the glory of the British Empire depended on Pettybaw fire. Some of us had misgivings, too, misgivings founded upon Miss Grieve's dismal prophecies.
Bide-a-Wee Cottage does not occupy an imposing position in the landscape, and the choice of art fabrics at the Pettybaw draper's is small, but the moment it should stop raining we were intending to carry out a dazzling scheme of decoration that would proclaim our affectionate respect for the 'little lady in black' on her Diamond Jubilee. But would it stop raining? that was the question.
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