i had been well-nigh a year about the great house of girthon as family chaplain to the laird, when there came a call to accept the ministry of the gospel among the people of balmaghie. it was a parish greatly to my mind. it lies, as all know, in the heart of galloway, between the slow, placid sylvan stretches of the ken and the rapid, turbulent mill-race of the black water of dee.

from a worldly point of view the parish was most desirable. for though the income in money and grain was not great, nevertheless the whole amount was equal to the income of most of the smaller lairds in the neighbourhood.

yet for all these things, i trust that those in future times who may read this my life record will acquit me of the sin of self-seeking.

i mind well the first time that i preached in the parish which was to be mine own. i{106} had walked with naught but my bible in my pocket over the long, lone hill-road from girthon to balmaghie. i had with me no provender to comfort my stomach by the way, or to speed my feet over the miles of black heather moors and green morass.

for the housekeeper, to whom (for reasons into which i need not enter) everything in the laird’s house of girthon was committed, was a fair-faced, hard-natured, ill-hearted woman, who liked not the coming of a chaplain into the house—as she said, “stirring up the servants to gad about to preachings, and taking up their time with family worship and the like foolishness.”

so she went out of her way to ensure that the chaplains would stay only until they could obtain quittance of so bare and thankless a service.

when i arrived at the kirk of balmaghie, having come all the long journey from girthon on foot and fasting, i sat me down on a flat stone in the kirkyard, near by where the martyrs lie snug and bieldy at the gable-end.

so exhausted was i that i know not what i should have done but for a young lass, comely and well put on, who gave me the farle of oatcake{107} she had brought with her for her “morning.”

“you are the young minister who is to preach to us this day?” she said, going over to the edge of the little wood which at that time bounded the kirkyard.

i answered her that i was and that i had walked all the way from the great house of girthon that morning—whereat she held up her hands in utter astonishment.

“it is just not possible,” she cried.

and after pitying me a long time with her eyes, and urging me to eat her “piece” up quickly, she featly stooped down to the water and washed her feet and ankles, before drawing upon them a pair of white hosen, fair and thin, and fastening her shoes with the buckles of silver after a pretty fashion which was just coming in.

it was yet a full hour and a half before the beginning of the morning diet of worship, for i had risen betimes and travelled steadily. now the kirk of balmaghie stands in a lonely place, and even the adjoining little clachan of folk averts itself some distance from it.

then being hungry i sat and munched at the lass’s piece, till, with thinking on my sermon{108} and looking at her by the waterside, i had well-nigh eaten it every snatch. so when i awoke from my reverie, as from a deep sleep, i sat with a little bit of bread, the size of my thumb, in my hand, staring at it as if i had seen a fairlie.[7]

and what was worse, the lass seeing me thus speechless, and with my jaws yet working on the last of the crust, went off into peal after peal of laughter.

“what for do ye look at me like that, young lad?” she said, when she had sufficiently commanded herself.

“i—i have eaten all your midday piece, whiles i was thinking upon my sermon,” i said.

“more befitting is it that you should think upon your sermon than of things lighter and less worthy,” said she, without looking up at me. i was pleased with her solid answer and felt abashed.

“but you will go wanting,” i began.

she gartered one shapely stocking of silk ere she answered me, holding the riband that was to cincture the other in her mouth, as appears to be the curious fashion of women.{109}

“what matter,” she said, presently, as she stroked down her kirtle over her knee modestly, with an air that took me mightily, it was so full of distance and respect. “i come not far, but only from the farm town of drumglass down there on the meadow’s edge. ye are welcome to the bit piece; i am as glad to see ye eat it as of a sunny morn in haytime. you have come far, and a brave day’s wark we are expecting from you this sabbath day.”

then, as was my duty, i rebuked her for looking to man for that which could alone come from the master and maker of man.

she listened very demurely, with her eyes upon the silver buckles of her shoon, which she had admiringly placed side by side on the grass, when she set herself down on the low boundary wall of the kirkyard.

“i ken i am too young and light and foolish to be fit company even for a young minister,” she said, and there was a blush upon her cheek which vexed me, though it was bonny enough to look upon.

“nay,” answered i quickly; “there you mistake me. i meant no such thing, bonnie lass. we are all both fond and foolish, minister and maid.” (well might i say it, for—god{110} forgive me!—at that very moment my mind ran more on how the lass looked and on the way she had of tapping the grass with her foot than on the solemn work of the day.)

“no, no,” she interrupted, hastily; “i am but a silly lass, poor and ignorant, and you do well to fault me.”

now this put me in a painful predicament, for i still held in my hand the solitary scraplet left of the young lass’s “piece,” and i must needs, like a dull, splenetic fool, go on fretting her for a harmless word.

she turned away her head a little; nevertheless, i was not so ill-learned in the ways of maids but that i could see she was crying.

“what is your name, sweet maid?” i asked, for my heart was wae that i had grieved her.

she did not answer me till she had a little recovered herself.

“jean gemmell,” she said, at last, “and my father is the tenant of drumglass up by there. he is an elder, and will be here by kirk-time. the session is holding a meeting at the manse.”

i had pulled a bible from my pocket and was thinking of my sermon by this time.

jean gemmell rose and stood a moment picking at a flower by the wall.{111}

“my father will be on your side,” she said, slowly.

“but,” cried i, in some astonishment, “your father has not yet heard me preach.”

“no more have i,” she made answer, smiling on me with her eyes, “but, nevertheless, my father will be on your side.”

and she moved away, looking still very kindly upon me.

i cannot tell whether or no i was helped by this rencounter in my conduct of the worship that day in the parish kirk of balmaghie. at any rate, i went down and walked in the meadows by the side of dee water till the folk gathered and the little cracked bell began to clank and jow from the kirk on the hill.