the son from london
in the spring of the year there used to come to thrums a painter from nature whom hendry spoke of as the drawer. he lodged with jess in my attic, and when the weavers met him they said, "weel, drawer," and then passed on, grinning. tammas haggart was the first to say this.
the drawer was held a poor man because he straggled about the country looking for subjects for his draws, and jess, as was her way, gave him many comforts for which she would not charge. that, i daresay, was why he painted for her a little portrait of jamie. when the drawer came back to thrums he always found the painting in a frame in the room. here i must make a confession about jess. she did not in her secret mind think the portrait quite the thing, and as soon as the drawer departed it was removed from the frame to make way for a calendar. the deception was very innocent, jess being anxious not to hurt the donor's feelings.
to those who have the artist's eye, the picture, which hangs in my school-house now, does not show a handsome lad, jamie being short and dapper, with straw-coloured hair, and a chin that ran away into his neck. that is how i once regarded him, but i have little heart for criticism of those i like, and, despite his madness for a season, of which, alas, i shall have to tell, i am always jamie's friend. even to hear any one disparaging the appearance of jess's son is to me a pain.
all jess's acquaintances knew that in the beginning of every month a registered letter reached her from london. to her it was not a matter to keep secret. she was proud that the help she and hendry needed in the gloaming of their lives should come from her beloved son, and the neighbours esteemed jamie because he was good to his mother. jess had more humour than any other woman i have known while leeby was but sparingly endowed; yet, as the month neared its close, it was the daughter who put on the humorist, jess thinking money too serious a thing to jest about. then if leeby had a moment for gossip, as when ironing a dickey for hendry, and the iron was a trifle too hot, she would look archly at me before addressing her mother in these words:
"will he send, think ye?"
jess, who had a conviction that he would send, affected surprise at the question.
"will jamie send this month, do ye mean? na, oh, losh no! it's no to be expeckit. na, he couldna do't this time."
"that's what ye aye say, but he aye sends. yes, an' vara weel ye ken 'at he will send."
"na, na, leeby; dinna let me ever think o' sic a thing this month."
"as if ye wasna thinkin' o't day an' nicht!"
"he's terrible mindfu', leeby, but he doesna hae't. na, no this month; mebbe next month."
"do you mean to tell me, mother, 'at ye'll no be up oot o' yer bed on monunday an hour afore yer usual time, lookin' for the post?"
"na, no this time. i may be up, an' tak a look for 'im, but no expeckin' a registerdy; na, na, that wouldna be reasonable."
"reasonable here, reasonable there, up you'll be, keekin' (peering) through the blind to see if the post's comin', ay, an' what's mair, the post will come, and a registerdy in his hand wi' fifteen shillings in't at the least."
"dinna say fifteen, leeby; i would never think o' sic a sum. mebbe five—"
"five! i wonder to hear ye. vera weel you ken 'at since he had twenty-twa shillings in the week he's never sent less than half a sovereign."
"no, but we canna expeck—"
"expeck! no, but it's no expeck, it's get."
on the monday morning when i came downstairs, jess was in her chair by the window, beaming, a piece of paper in her hand. i did not require to be told about it, but i was told. jess had been up before leeby could get the fire lit, with great difficulty reaching the window in her bare feet, and many a time had she said that the post must be by.
"havers," said leeby, "he winna be for an hour yet. come awa' back to your bed."
"na, he maun be by," jess would say in a few minutes; "ou, we couldna expeck this month."
so it went on until jess's hand shook the blind.
"he's comin', leeby, he's comin'. he'll no hae naething, na, i couldna expeck—— he's by!"
"i dinna believe it," cried leeby, running to the window, "he's juist at his tricks again."
this was in reference to a way our saturnine post had of pretending that he brought no letters and passing the door. then he turned back. "mistress mcqumpha," he cried, and whistled.
"run, leeby, run," said jess, excitedly.
leeby hastened to the door, and came back with a registered letter.
"registerdy," she cried in triumph, and jess, with fond hands, opened the letter. by the time i came down the money was hid away in a box beneath the bed, where not even leeby could find it, and jess was on her chair hugging the letter. she preserved all her registered envelopes.
this was the first time i had been in thrums when jamie was expected for his ten days' holiday, and for a week we discussed little else. though he had written saying when he would sail for dundee, there was quite a possibility of his appearing on the brae at any moment, for he liked to take jess and leeby by surprise. hendry there was no surprising, unless he was in the mood for it, and the coolness of him was one of jess's grievances. just two years earlier jamie came north a week before his time, and his father saw him from the window. instead of crying out in amazement or hacking his face, for he was shaving at the time. henry calmly wiped his razor on the window-sill, and said—
"ay, there's jamie."
jamie was a little disappointed at being seen in this way, for he had been looking forward for four and forty hours to repeating the sensation of the year before. on that occasion he had got to the door unnoticed, where he stopped to listen. i daresay he checked his breath, the better to catch his mother's voice, for jess being an invalid, jamie thought of her first. he had leeby sworn to write the truth about her, but many an anxious hour he had on hearing that she was "complaining fell (considerably) about her back the day," leeby, as he knew, being frightened to alarm him. jamie, too, had given his promise to tell exactly how he was keeping, but often he wrote that he was "fine" when jess had her doubts. when hendry wrote he spread himself over the table, and said that jess was "juist about it," or "aff and on," which does not tell much. so jamie hearkened painfully at the door, and by and by heard his mother say to leeby that she was sure the teapot was running out. perhaps that voice was as sweet to him as the music of a maiden to her lover, but jamie did not rush into his mother's arms. jess has told me with a beaming face how craftily he behaved. the old man, of lungs that shook thrums by night, who went from door to door selling firewood, had a way of shoving doors rudely open and crying—
"ony rozetty roots?" and him jamie imitated.
"juist think," jess said, as she recalled the incident, "what a startle we got. as we think, pete kicks open the door and cries oot, 'ony rozetty roots?' and leeby says 'no,' and gangs to shut the door. next minute she screeches, 'what, what, what!' and in walks jamie!"
jess was never able to decide whether it was more delightful to be taken aback in this way or to prepare for jamie. sudden excitement was bad for her according to hendry, who got his medical knowledge second-hand from persons under treatment, but with jamie's appearance on the threshold jess's health began to improve. this time he kept to the appointed day, and the house was turned upside down in his honour. such a polish did leeby put on the flagons which hung on the kitchen wall, that, passing between them and the window, i thought once i had been struck by lightning. on the morning of the day that was to bring him, leeby was up at two o'clock, and eight hours before he could possibly arrive jess had a night-shirt warming for him at the fire. i was no longer anybody, except as a person who could give jamie advice. jess told me what i was to say. the only thing he and his mother quarrelled about was the underclothing she would swaddle him in, and jess asked me to back her up in her entreaties.
"there's no a doubt," she said, "but what it's a hantle caulder here than in london, an' it would be a terrible business if he was to tak the cauld."
jamie was to sail from london to dundee, and come on to thrums from tilliedrum in the post-cart. the road at that time, however, avoided the brae, and at a certain point jamie's custom was to alight, and take the short cut home, along a farm road and up the commonty. here, too, hookey crewe, the post, deposited his passenger's box, which hendry wheeled home in a barrow. long before the cart had lost sight of tilliedrum, jess was at her window.
"tell her hookey's often late on monundays," leeby whispered to me, "for she'll gang oot o' her mind if she thinks there's onything wrang."
soon jess was painfully excited, though she sat as still as salt.
"it maun be yer time," she said, looking at both leeby and me, for in thrums we went out and met our friends.
"hoots," retorted leeby, trying to be hardy, "hookey canna be oot o' tilliedrum yet."
"he maun hae startit lang syne."
"i wonder at ye, mother, puttin' yersel in sic a state. ye'll be ill when he comes."
"na, am no in nae state, leeby, but there'll no be nae accident, will there?"
"it's most provokin' 'at ye will think 'at every time jamie steps into a machine there'll be an accident. am sure if ye would tak mair after my father, it would be a blessin'. look hoo cool he is."
"whaur is he, leeby?"
"oh, i dinna ken. the henmost time i saw him he was layin' doon the law aboot something to t'nowhead."
"it's an awfu' wy that he has o' ga'en oot withoot a word. i wouldna wonder 'at he's no bein' in time to meet jamie, an' that would be a pretty business."
"od, ye're sure he'll be in braw time."
"but he hasna ta'en the barrow wi' him, an' hoo is jamie's luggage to be brocht up withoot a barrow?"
"barrow! he took the barrow to the saw-mill an hour syne to pick it up at rob angus's on the wy."
several times jess was sure she saw the cart in the distance, and implored us to be off.
"i'll tak no settle till ye're awa," she said, her face now flushed and her hands working nervously.
"we've time to gang and come twa or three times yet," remonstrated leeby; but jess gave me so beseeching a look that i put on my hat. then hendry dandered in to change his coat deliberately, and when the three of us set off, we left jess with her eye on the door by which jamie must enter. he was her only son now, and she had not seen him for a year.
on the way down the commonty, leeby had the honour of being twice addressed as miss mcqumpha, but her father was hendry to all, which shows that we make our social position for ourselves. hendry looked forward to jamie's annual appearance only a little less hungrily than jess, but his pulse still beat regularly. leeby would have considered it almost wicked to talk of anything except jamie now, but hendry cried out comments on the tatties, yesterday's roup, the fall in jute, to everybody he encountered. when he and a crony had their say and parted, it was their custom to continue the conversation in shouts until they were out of hearing.
only to jess at her window was the cart late that afternoon. jamie jumped from it in the long great-coat that had been new to thrums the year before, and hendry said calmly—
"ay, jamie."
leeby and jamie made signs that they recognized each other as brother and sister, but i was the only one with whom he shook hands. he was smart in his movements and quite the gentleman, but the thrums ways took hold of him again at once. he even inquired for his mother in a tone that was meant to deceive me into thinking he did not care how she was.
hendry would have had a talk out of him on the spot, but was reminded of the luggage. we took the heavy farm road, and soon we were at the saw-mill. i am naturally leisurely, but we climbed the commonty at a stride. jamie pretended to be calm, but in a dark place i saw him take leeby's hand, and after that he said not a word. his eyes were fixed on the elbow of the brae, where he would come into sight of his mother's window. many, many a time, i know, that lad had prayed to god for still another sight of the window with his mother at it. so we came to the corner where the stile is that sam'l dickie jumped in the race for t'nowhead's bell, and before jamie was the house of his childhood and his mother's window, and the fond, anxious face of his mother herself. my eyes are dull, and i did not see her, but suddenly jamie cried out, "my mother!" and leeby and i were left behind. when i reached the kitchen jess was crying, and her son's arms were round her neck. i went away to my attic.
there was only one other memorable event of that day. jamie had finished his tea, and we all sat round him, listening to his adventures and opinions. he told us how the country should be governed, too, and perhaps put on airs a little. hendry asked the questions, and jamie answered them as pat as if he and his father were going through the shorter catechism. when jamie told anything marvellous, as how many towels were used at the shop in a day, or that twopence was the charge for a single shave, his father screwed his mouth together as if preparing to whistle, and then instead made a curious clucking noise with his tongue, which was reserved for the expression of absolute amazement. as for jess, who was given to making much of me, she ignored my remarks and laughed hilariously at jokes of jamie's which had been received in silence from me a few minutes before.
slowly it came to me that leeby had something on her mind, and that jamie was talking to her with his eyes. i learned afterwards that they were plotting how to get me out of the kitchen, but were too impatient to wait. thus it was that the great event happened in my presence. jamie rose and stood near jess—i daresay he had planned the scene frequently. then he produced from his pocket a purse, and coolly opened it. silence fell upon us as we saw that purse. from it he took a neatly-folded piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball, and flung it into jess's lap.
i cannot say whether jess knew what it was. her hand shook, and for a moment she let the ball of paper lie there.
"open't up," cried leeby, who was in the secret.
"what 's't?" asked hendry, drawing nearer.
"it's juist a bit paper jamie flung at me," said jess, and then she unfolded it.
"it's a five-pound note!" cried hendry.
"na, na, oh keep us, no," said jess; but she knew it was.
for a time she could not speak.
"i canna tak it, jamie," she faltered at last.
but jamie waved his hand, meaning that it was nothing, and then, lest he should burst, hurried out into the garden, where he walked up and down whistling. may god bless the lad, thought i. i do not know the history of that five-pound note, but well aware i am that it grew slowly out of pence and silver, and that jamie denied his passions many things for this great hour. his sacrifices watered his young heart and kept it fresh and tender. let us no longer cheat our consciences by talking of filthy lucre. money may always be a beautiful thing. it is we who make it grimy.
