The Little Minister

To her this was to ravel the day: a dire thing. The last time it happened Gavin, softened by h

r, to early rising, her feet were usually on the floor before she remembered her vow, and then it was but a step to the window to survey the morning. To Margaret, who seldom went out, the weather wa

appearance at the window as their signal to depart, for hardly had she raised the blind when they began their march out of Thrums. From the manse she could not see them, but she heard them, and she saw some people at the Tenements run to their houses at sound of the drum. Other pers

g his belongings in boxes, and the boxes in secret places, and the secret places at the back of drawers, occasionally led to their being lost when wanted. "They are safe, at any rate, for I put them away some gait," was then Magaret's comfort, but less soothing to Gavin. Yet if he upbraided her in his hurry, it was to repent bitterly his temper the next instant, and to feel its effects more than she, temper being a weapon that we hold by the blade. When he awoke and saw her in his room he would pretend, unless he felt called upon

hand before his face, as if to guard himself, and again he frowned and seemed to draw back from something. He pointed his finger sternly to the north, ordering the weavers, his mother thought, to return to their homes, and then he muttered to himself so that she heard the words, "And if thy right hand offend thee cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy

cheerfulness would have told him that her father was safe had he not wakened to thoughts of the Egyptian. I suppose he was at the window in an instant, un

just lifted his ewer of water when th

ice and sojers sic a dance through Thrums as would baffle description, though I kent the

eerer things about this hussy and her "husband" were being bawled from door to door. To the girl's probable sufferings he gave no heed. What k

e dresser, and Gavin sprang from his chair. H

nd then because she wore a veil. In the manse he was for taking a glance at sideways and then going away comforted, as a respectable woman may once or twice in a day look at her brooch in the pasteboard box as a means of helping her with her work. But with such a

t the capture of the-of an Egyptian woma

round longingly. "But maybe the mistress

Tilliedrum?" Gavin as

aid. "I'll have no speaking about this te

ster replied, pushing his plat

Jean willingly, "the

iedr

" asked Gavin, hi

tch her," Jean answered. "She spirit

t I heard

irra and captain guarding her, and syne in a clink she wasna there. A' nicht they looked for her, but she hadna left so muckl

appetite

ent away?" he asked, laying down his sp

vely. "Whaur is she now? Whaur does the flies vanis

the people say

arles Yuill gangs the length o' h

uried herself, Jean,"

les says she's eve

luctantly (but leavi

s porridge. He was

et won

gypsy be true," she said, "she

n said, with conviction. "She

see her

Mother, she

awpie!" excla

that," said

rdinary gypsy body? But you don

n said, slowly, "she w

and bar

both of them; "but she had a lang grey-like c

ably annoyed, and sh

asked Margaret. "Jean says they s

earthly nor heavenly." He was seeing things as they are very

e soul surely does speak thro

so, mother?" Gavin as

it," Margaret said, a

ce influence me a jot,

reason you pay so little regard t

er caring for another woman. I would compa

et said, "you'll t

, with a violence that

ely, for his mother was nodding to him from her window. Then he disappeared into the little arbour. What had caught his eye was a Bible. On the previous day, as he now remembered, he ha

at was to be done with the cloak? He dared not leave it there for Jean to discover. He could not take it into the manse in daylight. Beneath the seat was a tool-chest without a lid, and into this he crammed the cloak. Then, having turned the bo

Shortly after gloaming fell that night Jean encountered her master in the lobby of the manse. He was carrying something, and when

cience-stricken, and he stood with his back to

all day," he said to himself, though i

ock it away in his chest, but it looked so wicked lyin

d was opening his door gently, when there was Jean again. She had be

s," which sent Jean to the kitc

ged on his sermon, when he distinctly heard some one in the garret. He ran up

in alarm, "what ar

dying up the

for you. Did Jean-did Jea

knows her p

der again, dragged the cloak from its lurking place, and took it into the garden. He very nearly met Je

s wakened early by a noise of scraping in the garden, and his first thought was "Jean!" But peering

dly. On his way home, nevertheless, he was overtaken by D. Fittis, who had been cutting down whins. Fittis had seen the parcel fall, and running after Gavin, re

garet had news for

ou believe it, the cloak was Captain Halliwell's, and she took it from the town-house when she escaped. She

his possible?

, it seems, to look for the cloak quietly, and to take

t been

N

s to be done now? The cloak was lying in mason Baxter's garden, and Baxter was t

r wear a cap at nicht

ather three

muckle respect for

for it's the crowning

k o' Tillyloss the now," said Femie, "though l

re was no answer, and Baxter closed his window, under the impression that he had been speaking to a cat. The man in the cap then emerged from the corner where he

has been found," Mar

on Baxter found it y

n?" Gavin ask

he quarry to-day. Some seem to think that the gypsy gave him the cloak for helping h

ven it to, moth

e poli

orld sent it ba

once, with the information that the

oak, of which I may here record the end. Wearyworld had not forwarded it to its owner; Meggy, his wife, took care of that. It