Читать книгу Gathered In - Catherine Helen Spence - Страница 7

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More than a year had elapsed since the death of Isabel Oswald, and Kenneth kept growing fast, and making good progress at school. His master took a pride in him, he himself was eager to please Mr. McDiarmid, to whom he was allowed to write twice a year and who answered his letters very kindly, and on two occasions Kenneth had the great treat of going up to Edinburgh to meet this generous friend, who took him to a fine hotel, and had him dine with his own self, and made him order what he liked best. More than this, he was asked to choose which of the sights of Edinburgh he would prefer to see, and height of bliss, Mr. McDiarmid accompanied him to the theatre, and the circus, and once took him for a walk round Arthur's Seat. He encouraged the boy to talk, and tell him all the thoughts, serious or idle, that were in his heart, and sent him home full of pleasant memories and pleasanter anticipations of a repetition of the delights.

But when Kenneth attained his twelfth year a great change came over the family arrangements. The uncle in Australia, George Oswald, who had written to his parents but seldom and irregularly, though always kindly, astonished them and all the village in which he and they had lived by announcing that he had had such strokes of good luck lately that he meant to keep his father and mother in comfort for the rest of their lives, and that as he had heard they had a fine nephew of his own at home, he wished that he should be educated as a gentleman, in first class style, and sent out to him when his education was finished. He, George Oswald, had never taken a right grip of the world till he had sworn off drink, so he would like his nephew to begin on the square, and drink nothing stronger than tea. He was married and had one son two or three years younger than Kenneth as he thought; the mother spoiled him a bit, but the little chap was as like his father as two peas. But there was only the one, and he thought Jim would be the better for a companion by-and-by. There was plenty for them both at Tingalpa, which was the name of his head station, and as for the old folks, they were never to need to work another stroke.

The letter was accompanied by a remittance so handsome that the old couple were amazed, and there was a promise of a similar sum to be sent every half year. He said he would prefer his nephew to be educated in England, or at any rate in Edinburgh, and that he should be sent where there were real upper crusts, and not to any poor widow woman who let lodgings to starving divinity students. Above all things he was to be sure to have plenty to eat, if it was to be got for money; for George Oswald's ideas on food had expanded since he left the parental roof.

This bewildering letter was discussed by John and Marion Oswald first in private conference. To leave their home and their neighbours to go either to Edinburgh or to England was altogether out of the question; to part with Kenneth was nearly as hard, but then if he was to be associated with gentlefolks henceforward, he must be parted with.

"I'd better advise with the minister, John," said the old woman.

"Nobody could advise us better than Kenneth's ain father, Marion. Will I write to him on the matter, think ye?"

"Never!" said his wife; "never. Thank the Lord and our George that we need never to be beholden to him for a penny o'siller or a scrape of a pen henceforth! Oh, my heart is greatly relieved! George is as rich as any McDiarmid o' them a', or I'm greatly mista'en, and now, as he says, he is sworn off the drink, he'll haud up his head wi' the best in the lan'. And as for Kenneth, he'll gang forth the kingdom, and nae man in Australia can lay a finger or the spot that a' body here is so keen to see."

"But what will we do wanting the laddie?" said John Oswald. "And naething to do ourselves aither."

"It's time we twa sat by the fireside noo, John," said his wife kindly. "As for me, I can knit my stocking yet as I have done sae lang, and you, John, can have your dambrod (draughtboard) and drafts and your pipe and the papers, an' I daresay the neighbours will be blithe to come an' hae a crack wi' ye aboot the news."

"Aye, but we'll miss Kenneth, there's naebody reads oot like him, though I could aye hear Isabel, though her voice was no' that loud--it was sae clear. But there's naebody else that makes me hear sae well."

"We'll miss the laddie nae doot, but we've had aye to send the young anes oot o' the nest wi' less certainty of their prosperity too. Wad Geordie hae come to sic a kingdom in the three Lothians, think ye, if he had stopped here like John Lindores? Na, na," and she played with the Bank draft she held in her hand and listened to the crisp rustling of the paper, as sweet to her Scottish ears as the chink of gold to those of an Englishwoman. "This is a bonnie little bit o' paper to be worth sae muckle."

"But we maun let the laddie's father ken," said John Oswald.

"I'll do that myself," said Marion, "though I'm nae great hand wi' the pen, I can manage that muckle," and before Kenneth had come from school, she had penned with many slips, omissions, and mistakes what Mr. McDiarmid made out thus--

Sir--My son George in Austraulia havin maid his fortin wants to have Kenneth scooled and maid a gentlemon of, all at his own koast. So as we ne'er wanted favour from you but only justiss, which ye neer wad see, there needs be nae mair beholden to you from this time, and nae mair trockin wi' the laddie at Embro.

Your servant to command

Marion Oswald.

Kenneth was stunned, less by the good fortune coming to the family and to himself than by the announcement that there was to be now no need of Mr. McDiarmid's charity, and that his grandmother had written and posted a letter to put a stop to all communication, and forbade him to write to say anything to explain matters, as she had done everything that was necessary. No expostulation had any effect on the peremptory old woman, and even the grandfather bowed to her wishes and could not be brought to side with Kenneth. Nobody sympathized with him but the powerless Nelly Lindores, who thought it a shame and a sin that the wonderfully kind gentleman who was like a fairy Prince to her imagination, should be treated so rudely, and make Kenneth appear so ungrateful. Mrs. Oswald was scarcely prepared for Mr. McDiarmid writing to Kenneth under cover to the schoolmaster, congratulating him on his unexpected change of fortune and hoping that he would make the best of all the opportunities given to him. He acquiesced in a general way in the grandmother's opinion, that now his own assistance would be unnecessary, but if ever circumstances changed, if ever Kenneth needed advice or help, he should be glad if he would address a letter to him at Mr. Shiel's, and he might be sure of an answer if he (Norman McDiarmid) was alive.

This precious letter Kenneth read and reread, and answered it forthwith.

Honoured Sir--I have not words to thank you in, only I'll mind your offer and ask your help if ever I need it. Grandmother is set against it, but I like your help better than my uncle's. If I go to Edinburgh, will I have any chance of seeing you; just a sight now and then would do me good and cheer my heart a bit. I remain.

Your obliged servant.

Kenneth Oswald.

In a very short time from the date of this letter Kenneth was placed, by the advice of the minister, Mr. Lang, in a large academy in Edinburgh, not as a boarder--that was scarcely considered what would have satisfied his uncle George's ambition--but as a day scholar. He was boarded with a Mrs. Wishart, whom Mr. Shiel (the Writer to the Signet, who was in Mr. McDiarmid's confidence) recommended to apply for the boy. She was the widow of a young advocate who had bid fair to rise to the highest walks in the profession, but who had died, leaving her with two young children to provide for. She had a good house in a good situation, and took boarders from the country who were either at school or College, and had an especially good connection among the legal profession. This recommended itself to Mr. Lang, as preferable to a boarding school, for Kenneth would benefit by living in the daily society of a gentlewoman, and acquire better manners among such students as she attracted to her house than he could do at any school. Mrs. Wishart had never had so young a boy as Kenneth, and at first was disposed to feel aggrieved at Mr. Shiel when she saw how countrified he looked and how broad his accent was. But Kenneth won upon her by his kindness to her little children, and he soon caught the sharper, quicker mode of speech in use in the capital of Scotland, and he was so obliging and easily pleased that he soon became her favourite inmate, so that his youth, which promised a longer stay than usual, was all in his favour. He had good abilities and steady application, and did fairly well at school--more than fairly, in Mrs. Wishart's opinion, because he was such a good all-round boy--a lover of play, a lover of exercise, and a lover of literature--a boy who made friends and never let his lessons prevent him from doing a kind thing, or going out of his way a good deal to serve a friend. When at the age of sixteen, he was entered at "the College" as the ancient and famous University of Edinburgh is called in common parlance, he took and kept a very respectable place. But it was not his great special talents, or his turn for languages or for the exact sciences, that were his distinguishing characteristic. Nobody recollected Kenneth Oswald as a sap or a crammer until the last year of his course, when he seemed to have some motive for extra exertion. He was just the pleasantest fellow who attended that three years' course, ready for any fun and interested in everybody's affairs. To none of her other young friends, as she called them, could Mrs. Wishart confide her little anxieties about money matters, and about the future of Willie and Robina. There was no student there whom the old Janitor so delighted to button-hole, and tell old stories about his exploits in the Crimean War; no one whom the Professors so relied on to help to keep order or discipline in case of any snowballing or other College row, or who had an equally good footing among his seniors and juniors. Mrs. Wishart confessed that her country lad grew into the best-looking and most gentlemanly-looking fellow of those who accompanied her to church, and the grandparents and Nelly at each visit during the holidays congratulated themselves on his height and his strength, and his handsome appearance, and above all on the fact that he would do credit to Uncle George's expenditure on him; for he looked no more like the lads who had gone with him to the village school than if he had been brought up a gentleman all his life.

Kenneth's feelings with regard to his future career were not altogether in consonance with his uncle's plans and wishes. There was such a vagueness in Mr. George Oswald's letters; there seemed to be no special directions to be given to his studies. He had written to know if his uncle would like him to study or to take special note of sheep or cattle or agriculture, if these would be of any service, but his uncle had said that if that was needed he'd learn better under him in Australia, for everything has to be learned afresh in a new country; but what he wanted was the education and the manners of a gentleman; a "Good hand of write, which he saw his nephew was cultivating, and some more counting" than he, George Oswald, had got. He was to learn all that was going at the school and the College--but not to be a book-worm--that was neither for use nor for ornament. If he could keep on outside of a horse, and hold the ribbons for a pair of spirited beasts, so much the better. His cousin Jim could do that first rate, and might not respect him as he should do if Kenneth was deficient there--there were horses and traps enough at Tingalpa.