 Chapter 1 of David Elginbrod. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. David Elginbrod by George McDonald. And Gladly Wood, He Learned, and Gladly Teach. Chaucer. To the memory of Lady Noel Byron, this book is dedicated, with a love stronger than death. Book 1. Terry Puffett. With him there was a plowman, was his brother, a true-ace swinker, and a good was he, living in peace and perfect charity. God loved he best with all his true heart, and all I had time is, were it gain or smart, and then his neighbor right as himself. Chaucer. Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Chapter 1. The Fur Wood. Of all the flowers in the mead, then love I most these flowers white and redder, such that men call in daisies in our town. I run ablaze, as soon as ever the sun ginneth west, to see this flower how it will go to rest. For fear of night so hated she darkness, her cheer is plainly spread in the brightness of the sunna, for there it will enclose. Chaucer. Prologue to the Legend of Good Women. Meg, where are you again? That get, like a wool-shuttle, come into the book. Meg's mother stood at the cottage door with arms of Kimbo and clouded brow, calling through the bowls of a little forest of fur trees after her daughter. One would naturally presume that the phrase she employed, comparing her daughter's motions to those of a shuttle that had gone wool, or lost its way, implied that she was watching her as she threaded her way through the trees. But although she could not see her, the Fur Wood was certainly the likeliest place for her daughter to be in, and the figure she employed was not in the least inapplicable to Meg's usual mode of wandering through the trees, that operation being commonly performed in the most erratic manner possible. It was the ordinary occupation of the first hour of almost every day of Margaret's life. As soon as she woke in the morning, the Fur Wood drew her towards it, and she rose and went. Through its crowd of slender pillars she strayed hither and thither in an aimless manner as if residedly haunting the neighborhood of something she had lost, or, hopefully, that of a treasure she expected one day to find. It did not seem that she had heard her mother's call, for no response followed, and Janet Elginbrod returned into the cottage where David of the same surname, who was already seated at the White Deal table with the Book, or Large Family Bible before him, straight away commenced reading the chapter in the usual routine from the Old Testament, the new being reserved for the evening devotions. The chapter was the fortieth of the prophet Isaiah, and as the voice of the reader re-uttered the words of all the inspiration, one might have thought that it was the voice of the ancient prophet himself, pouring forth the expression of his own faith in his expostulations with the unbelief of his brethren. The chapter finished, it is none of the shortest, and Meg had not yet returned. The two knelt, and David prayed thus, O thou who holdest the waters in the hollow of a hand, and carries the lambs of thy own making in thy bosom with the other hand, it would be altogether unworthy of thee, and of thy majesty of love, to require of us that which thou knowest we cannot bring unto thee, until thou enrich us with that same. Therefore, like thine own barons, we bow down before thee, and pray that thou wouldst take thy will of us, thy holy and perfect and blessed will of us. For, O God, we are thine own. And for our lassie, what's oot among the trees, and what we do not think forgets her maker, thus she may whilst forget her prayers, Lord keep her a bonnie lassie in their sight, as white and clean in thine eye, and as she is fair and haulsome in ours, and though we thank thee, Father, in heaven, for giving her to us, and new for all our wrongdoings and ill-mindings for our sins and trespasses of many sorts, to not forget them, O God. Till thou putst them all right in thine exercise, thy mighty power in thine own self, and clean forget them all together. Cast them behind thy back, where even thine eye and eye shall never see them again, that we may walk bold and upright before thee, forevermore, and see the face of him who was a mokogod in doing that bidden, as given he had been ordering a thing himself. For his sake, hamen. I hope my readers will not suppose that I give this as a specimen of Scott's prayers. I know better than that. David was an unusual man, and his prayers were unusual prayers. The present was a little more so in its style, from the fact that one of the subjects of it was absent, a circumstance that rarely happened. But the degree of difference was too small to be detected by any but those who were quite accustomed to his forms of thought and expression. How much of it Janet understood or sympathized with, it is difficult to say, for anything that could be called a thought rarely crossed the threshold of her utterance. On this occasion, at the moment the prayer was ended, she rose from her knees, smoothed down her check apron, and went to the door, where shading her eyes from the blinding sun with her hand, she peered from under its penthouse into the firwood, and said in a voice softened, apparently by the exercise in which she had taken a silent share. What can that lassie be? And where was the lassie? In the firwood, to be sure, with the thousand shadows and the sunlight through it all. For at this moment the light fell upon her far in its steps, and revealed her hastening towards the cottage in as straight a line as the trees would permit. Now blotted out by a crossing shadow and a non-radiant in the sunlight, appearing and vanishing as she threaded the upright warp of the firwood. It was morning all around her, and one might see that it was morning within her too, as emerging at last in the small open space around the cottage, Margaret. I cannot call her Meg, although her mother does, her father always called her Maggie Magoo, and Gliciste Dove. Margaret approached her mother with a bright, healthful face, and the least possible expression of uneasiness on her fair forehead. She carried a book in her hand. What car is he, gang, Strava-gun, that get, Meg, when ye can wheeling off ye should have been to worship long sign? And so we mount have worship our lands, for want of ye, ye hizzy. I did not can it with select, mother, replied Margaret, in a submissive tone, musical in spite of the rugged dialect into which the sounds were fashioned. Nay, dot, ye had ye breakfast, and ye were not that hungry for the word. But here comes your father, and ye'll know men for his flight, and I's promise. Well, let the Baron alone, Janet, my woman. The word will be more to her, for long. I watched she was, has a word of her known there. What book has ye got there, Meg? Where got ye it? Had it not been for the handsome binding of the book in her daughter's hand, it would neither have caught her eye nor roused the suspicions of Janet. David glanced at the book in his turn, and a faint expression of surprise, embodied chiefly in the opening of his eyelids a little wider than usual, crossed his face. But he only said with a smile. I did not can that the tree of knowledge was such fair fruit grew in our wood, Maggie Madu. Why got ye the book, reiterated Janet? Margaret's face was by this time the color of the crimson boards of the volume in her hand, but she replied at once, I got it from Master Sutherland, I reckon. Janet's first response was an inverted whistle, her next another question. Master Sutherland, what's that of it? Who to last, interposed David, ye can well enough. It's the new tutor light up at the house, a fine, deuce-honest child and well-farred foreby. Let's see the bit book ye lassie. Margaret handed it to her father. Call a ridges poems, read David, with some difficulty. Take it home directly, said Janet. Nay, nay, said David, and the apples of the tree of knowledge are now strapped with soot and stew, and given the one be, she'll soon can by the state of what's coming. It's no muckle of an ill book, at ye'll read, Maggie Madu. Good preservice, man. I'm not saying it's an ill book, but it's no right to make appointments with stranger lads in the woods so early in the morning. It's new yourself, Meg. Pleather, mother, said Margaret, and her eyes flashed through the watery veil that tried to hide them. Who can ye? Ye can yourself, I had an appointment with him, or any mind. We'll well, said Janet, and apparently either satisfied with or overcome by the emotion she had excited. She turned and went in to pursue her usual house avocations. While David, handling the book to his daughter, went away down the path that led from the cottage door in the direction of a road to be seen, at a little distance through the trees which surrounded the cottage on all sides. Margaret followed her mother into the cottage, and was soon as busy as she with her share of the duties of the household. But it was a good many minutes before the cloud caused by her mother's hasty words entirely disappeared from a forehead which might with a special justice be called the sky of her face. Meantime, David emerged from the more open road, and bent his course still through fir woods towards a house for whose sake alone the road seemed to have been constructed. End Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of David Elgin Broad by George MacDonald This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit www.librivox.org. David Elgin Broad, Chapter 2 David Elgin Broad and the New Tutor Concord between our wit and will, where highest notes to godliness are raised and lowest sink not down to jot of ill, what Linguatis taught Sir Philip Sidney, the Arcadia, Third Eclog. The House of Turry Puffet stood about a furlong from David's cottage. It was the abode of the Laird, or landed proprietor, in whose employment David filled several offices ordinarily distinct. The estate was a small one and almost entirely farmed by the owner himself, who, with David's help, managed to turn it to good account. Upon weekdays he appeared on horseback in a costume more fitted for following the plow, but he did not work with his own hands and on Sundays was at once recognizable as a country gentleman. David was his bailiff, or grieve, to overlook the laborers on the estate. His steward, to pay them, and keep the farm accounts. His head gardener, for little labor was expended in that direction, there being only one lady, the mistress of the house, and she no patroness of useless flowers. David was, in fact, the Laird's general advisor and executor. The Laird's family, besides the lady already mentioned, consisted only of two boys of the ages of eleven and fourteen, whom he had wished to enjoy the same privileges he had himself possessed, and to whom, therefore, he was giving a classical and mathematical education in view of the university by means of private tutors. The last of whom, for the changes were not few, seeing the salary was of the smallest, was Hugh Sutherland, the young man concerning whom David Elgin Broad had already given his opinion. But notwithstanding the freedom he always granted his daughter and his good opinion of Hugh as well, David could not help feeling a little anxious in his walk along the road toward the house as to what the apparent acquaintance between her and the new totor might evolve. But he got rid of all that difficulty as far as he was concerned by saying it last. What erect have I to interfere, even supposing I wanted to interfere? But I can lip and wheel to my bonny-do, and for the rest she mount take her chance, like the love of us. And what can but it might just be standing before him in the very get that he meant to gang? The Lord forgave me for speaking of chance, as given I believed in any siege hovers. There is no fear of the lassie. Good morning to you, Master Sutherland. That's a broad book of balance you get given the land of to my Maggie this morning, sir. Sutherland was just entering a side door of the house when David accosted him. He was not old enough to keep from blushing at David's words, but having a good conscience he was ready with a good answer. It's a good book, Mr. Elginbrod. It will do her no harm, though it be ballads. I'm at no dread of that, sir. Baron's mount have balance. And to tell the truth, sir, I'm no muckle more nor barren in that respect, myself. In fact, this fair morning at the book I just thought I was reading a grand godly ballad, and it sounded mourn the worst for the notion of it. You should have been a poet yourself, Mr. Elginbrod. Nay, nay, I can't nothing about your poetry. I have read all John Milton or an over, though I did not believe the half of it. But oh, hell, I like some of the Bonnie bitties at the end of it. Il Penceroso, for instance. Is that who you call it? It can't well by the sight, but hardly by the sound. I, I miss the name of it, and took to the thing itself. Ah, man, a baker pardon, but it's wonderful, Bonnie. I'll come in some evening, and we'll have a chat about it, replied Sutherland. I must go to my work now. Well, I'll be very happy to see you, sir. Good morning, sir. Good morning. David went to the garden where there was not much to be done in the way of education at this season of the year, and Sutherland to the schoolroom where he was busy all the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon was Caesar and Virgil, Algebra and Euclid, food upon which intellectual babes are reared to the stature of college youth. Sutherland was himself only a youth, for he had gone early to college and had not yet quite completed the curriculum. He was now filling up with teaching the recess between his third and fourth winter at one of the Aberdeen universities. He was the son of an officer belonging to the younger branch of a family of some historic distinction and considerable wealth. This officer, though not far removed from the estate and title as well, had nothing to live upon but his half-pay. For to the disgust of his family he had married a Welsh girl of ancient descent, in whose line the poverty must have been at least co-evil with the history to judge from the perfection of its development in the case of her father. And his relations made this the excuse for quarreling with him, so relieving themselves from any obligation they might have been supposed to lie under of rendering him assistance of some sort or other. This, however, rather suited the temperament of Major Robert Sutherland, who was prouder in his poverty than they and their riches. So he disowned them forever and accommodated himself with the best grace in the world to his yet more straightened circumstances. He resolved, however, cost what it might in pinching and squeezing to send his son to college before turning him out to shift for himself. In this Mrs. Sutherland was ready to support him to the utmost, and so they managed to keep their boy at college for three sessions, after the last of which instead of returning home as he had done on previous occasions, he had looked about him for a temporary engagement as tutor and found the situation he now occupied in the family of William Glasford Esquire of Turrypuffet, where he intended to remain no longer than the commencement of the session, which would be his fourth and last. To what he should afterwards devote himself, he had by no means made up his mind, except that it must of necessity be hard work of some kind or other. So he had at least the virtue of desiring to be independent. His other goods and bads must come out in the course of the story. His pupils were rather stupid and good-natured, so that their temperament operated to confirm their intellectual condition and to render the labour of teaching them considerably irksome. But he did his work tolerably well and was not so much interested in the result as to be pained at the moderate degree of his success. At the time of which I write, however, the probability as to his success was scarcely ascertained, for he had been only a fortnight at the task. It was the middle of the month of April, in a rather backward season, the weather had been stormy with frequent showers of sleet and snow. Old winter was doing his best to hold young spring back by the skirts of her garment, and very few of the wildflowers had yet ventured to look out of their warm beds in the mold. Sutherland, therefore, had made but few discoveries in the neighborhood. Not that the weather would have kept him to the house, had he had any particular desire to go out. But like many other students, he had no predilection for objectless exertion and preferred the choice of his own weather indoors, namely from books and his own imaginings to an encounter with the keen blasts of the north, charges they often wore with sharp bullets of hail. When the sun did shine out between the showers, his cold glitter upon the pools of rain or melted snow, and on the wet evergreens and gravel walks always drove him back from the window with his shiver. The house, which was a very moderate size and comfort, stood in the midst of plantations, principally of scotch furs and larches, some of the former old and great growth, so that they had arrived at the true condition of the trees, which seems to require old age for the perfection of its idea. There was very little to be seen from the windows except this wood, which, somewhat gloomy at almost any season, was at the present cheerless enough, and Sutherland found it very dreary indeed as exchange for the wide view from his own home on the side of an open hill in the highlands. In the midst of circumstances so uninteresting, it is not to be wondered at that the glimpse of a pretty maiden should one morning occasion him some welcome excitement. Passing downstairs the breakfast, he observed the drawing room door ajar and looked in to see what sort of a room it was, for so seldom was it used that he had never yet entered it. There stood a young girl peeping with mingled curiosity and reverence into a small guilt-leaved volume which she had lifted from the table by which she stood. He watched her for a moment with some interest when she, seeming to become mesmerically aware that she was not alone, looked up, blushed deeply, put the book down in confusion and proceeded to dust some of the furniture. It was his first side of Margaret. Some of the neighbors were expected to dinner, and her aide was in requisition to get the grand room of the house prepared for the occasion. He supposed her to belong to the household till, one day, feeling compelled to go out for a stroll, he caught sight of her so occupied at the door of her father's cottage that he perceived at once that she must be at once her home. She was, in fact, seated upon a stool, paring potatoes. She saw him as well and apparently ashamed at the recollection of having been discovered idling in the drawing-room, rose, and went in. He had met David once or twice about the house and, attracted by his appearance, had had some conversation with him. But he did not know where he lived, nor that he was the father of the girl whom he had seen. End Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of David Elgin Broad by George MacDonald This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit www.librivox.org. David Elgin Broad by George MacDonald Chapter 3 The Daisy and the Primrose Dear secret greenness nursed below tempests and winds in winter nights, vexed not that but one sees thee grow, that one made all these lesser lights. Henry Vaughn It was, of course, quite by accident that Sutherland had met Margaret in the fur wood. The wind had changed during the night and swept all the clouds from the face of the sky. And when he looked out in the morning, he saw the fur tops waving in the sunlight and heard the sound of a southwest wind sweeping through them with the tune of running waters in its course. It is a well-practiced ear that can tell whether the sound it hears be that of gently falling waters or of a wind flowing through the branches of furs. Sutherland's heart, reviving like a doormouse in its whole, began to be joyful at the sight of the genial motions of nature, telling of warmth and blessedness at hand. Some goal of life, vague but sure, seemed to glimmer through the appearance that is around him and to stimulate him to action. He dressed in haste and went out to meet the spring. He wandered into the heart of the wood, the sunlight shone like a sunset upon the red trunks and boughs of the old fir trees, but like the first sunrise of the world upon the new green fringes that edged the young shoots of the larches. High up hung the memorials of past summers in the rich brown tassels of the clustering cones. While the ground underfoot was dappled with sunshine on the fallen fir needles, and the great fallen cones which had opened to scatter their autumnal seed and now lay waiting for decay. Overhead the tops once they had fallen, waved in the winds, as in welcome of the spring with that peculiar swinging motion which made the poets of the 16th century call them saline pines. The wind blew cool but not cold and was filled with the delicious odor from the earth which Sutherland took as a sign that she was coming alive at last. And the spring he went out to meet met him. For first at the foot of a tree he spied a tiny primrose peeping out of its rough, careful leaves. And he wondered how by any metamorphosis such leaves could pass into such flower. Had he seen the mother of the next spring messenger he was about to meet, the same thought would have returned in another form. For next as he passed on with the primrose in his hand thinking it was almost cruel to pluck it the spring met him as if in her own shape in the person of Margaret whom he spied a little way off leaning against the stem of a scotch fur and looking up to its tops swaying overhead in the first billows of the outburst ocean of life. He went up to her with some shyness for the presence of even a child maiden was enough to make Sutherland shy partly from the fear of startling her shyness as one feels when drawing near a crouching fawn. But she when she heard his footsteps dropped her eyes slowly from the tree-trop and as if she were in her own sanctuary waited his approach. He said nothing at first but offered her instead of speech the primrose he had just plucked which she received with a smile of the eyes only and the sweetest thank you sir he had ever heard. But while she held the primrose in her hand her eyes wandered to the book which according to his custom Sutherland had caught up as he left the house. It was the only well-bound book in his possession and the eyes of Margaret not yet tutored by experience naturally expected an entrancing page within such beautiful boards. For the gayest bindings she had seen were those of a few old annals up at the house and were they not full of the most lovely tales and pictures. In this case however her expectation was not vain for the volume was as I have already disclosed Coleridge's poems. Seeing her eyes fixed upon the book would you like to read it? said he. If you please sir answered Margaret her eyes brightening with the expectation of delight. Are you fond of poetry? Her face fell. The only poetry she knew was the Scott Psalms and the paraphrases and such last-century verses as formed the chief part of the selections in her school books. For this was a very retired parish and the newer books had not yet reached its school. She had hoped chiefly for tales. I did not ken much a boot poetry she answered trying to speak English. There is an old book of it on my father's shelf but the letters of it are old-fashioned and I did not care about it. But this is quite easy to read and very beautiful. said Hugh. The girl's eyes glistened for a moment and this was all her reply. Would you like to read it? resumed Hugh. Seeing no further answer was on the road. She held out her hand towards the volume. When he in his turn held the volume towards her hand she almost snatched it from him and ran towards the house without a word of thanks or leave-taking whether from eagerness or doubt Hugh could not conjecture. He stood for some moments looking after her and then retraced his steps towards the house. It would have been something in the monotony of one of the most trying of positions to meet one who snatched at the offered means of spiritual growth even if that disciple had not been a lovely girl with the woman waking in her eyes. He commenced the duties of the day with considerably more of energy than his uninteresting pupils and this energy did not fly before its effects upon the boys began to react in fresh impulse upon itself. End Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of David Elgin Broad This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org David Elgin Broad by George MacDonald Chapter 4 The Cottage A little Bethlehem poor in walls but rich in furniture John Mason's spiritual songs There was one great alleviation of the various discomforts of Sutherland's tutor life. It was that except during school hours he was expected to take no charge whatever of his pupils. He was told all other times which was far better in every way both for them and for him. Consequently he was entirely his own master beyond the fixed margins of scholastic duties and he soon found that his absence even from the table was a matter of no interest to the family. To be sure it involved his own fasting till the next meal time came round for the lady was quite a household martinet but that was his own concern. That very evening he made his way to David's cottage about the country's supper time when he thought he should most likely find him at home. It was a clear still moonlit night with just an air of frost. There was light enough for him to see that the cottage was very neat and tidy looking in the midst of its little forest more like in English than a Scotch habitation. He had had the advantage of a few months residence in a leafy region outside of the tweed and so was able to make the comparison but what a different leafage that was from this. That was soft, floating, billowy this hard, stiff and straight lined interfering so little with the skeleton form that it needed not to be put off in the wintry season of death to make the trees in harmony with the landscape. A light was burning in the cottage visible through the inner curtain of muslin and the outer one a frost. As he approached the door he heard the sound of a voice and from the even pitch of the tone he concluded at once that its owner was reading aloud. The measured cadence soon convinced him that it was verse that was being read and the voice was evidently that of David and not of Margaret. He knocked at the door. The voice ceased, chairs were pushed back and a heavy step approached. David opened the door to himself. Eh, Master Sutherland said he I thought it might a blins be yourself you're welcome sir come boot the hoose our place is but small and you'll no mind sit and doon with our own souls. Janet, woman this is Master Sutherland Maggie Madu, he's a friend of yours all day old already you kindly welcome Master Sutherland I'm sure it's very kind of you to come and see the like of us. As Hugh entered he saw his own bright volume lying on the table evidently that from which David had just been reading Margaret had already placed for him a cushioned arm chair the only comfortable one in the house and presently the table being drawn back they were all seated around the peat fire on the hearth the best sort for keeping feet warm at least on the crook or hooked iron chain suspended within the chimney hung a three-footed pot in which potatoes were boiling away merrily for supper by the side of the wide chimney or more properly lumb hung an iron lamp of an old classical form common to the country from the beak of which projected almost horizontally the lighted wick the pith of a rush the light perched upon it was small but clear and by it David had been reading Margaret sat right under it upon a small three-legged wooden stool sitting thus with the light falling on her from above Hugh could not help thinking she looked very pretty almost the only object in the distance from which the feeble light was reflected was the patchwork counterpane of a little bed filling a recess in the wall fitted with doors which stood open it was probably Margaret's refuge for the night well said the tutor after they had been seated a few minutes and had had some talk about the weather surely no despicable subject after such a morning the first of spring well how do you like the English poet Mr. Elginbrod spear that at me this day weak master Sutherland and all ablans answer ye but know the night know the night what for no said Hugh taking up the dialect for a thing when they cleaned through with old sailor's story yet again I had learned a thing it's not to pass judgment upon house I have seen ill weather half the summer then a throng cornyard after and all and that of the best knew that I'm ill pleased with the bonny balance either well will you just let me read the love of it till ye with mako pleasure sir and money thanks he showed Hugh how far they had got in the reading of the ancient writer whereupon he took up the tale and carried it on to the end he had some facility in reading with expression and his few affectations for it must be confessed he was not free of such faults were not of a nature to strike uncritical hearers when he had finished he looked up and his eye chanting to light upon Margaret first he saw that her cheek was quite pale and her eyes overspread with the film not of coming tears but of emotion not withstanding well said Hugh again willing to break the silence and turning towards David what do you think of it now you have heard it all whether Janet interrupted her husband or not I cannot tell but she certainly spoke first to shva equivalent to Pasha it's all leaves what for are you knitting your brows over a lean balance a havers as well as leaves I'm no just prepared to say some Michael Janet reply David there's many a thing at leaves as you call it at no leaves all through you see master Sutherland I'm no glad get the uptake and it just takes me twice as long as other folk to see to the outside of a thing was a sentence ill look to me clean nonsense all together and maybe a whole book after it'll come upon me at once and fags it's the best thing in all the book Margaret's eyes were fixed on her father with the look which I can only call faithfulness as if every word he spoke was truth whether she could understand it or not but perhaps we may look too far for meeting sometimes suggested Sutherland maybe maybe but when a body has a suspicion of a trouth he should never let sit till he's gotten either hit or an assurance that there but there's just a thing in the poem that I can't put my finger upon and say at it's no right to clear to me whether it's a straight forward or no what's that Mr. Elginbrod it's just this what four other sailor men fell doomed died and the child that shot the Bonnie birdie and did all the mischief came to little hurt in the end comparatively well said Hugh I confess I'm not prepared to answer the question if you get any light on the subject I dare say I may a heap of things comes to me as I'm taking a donder by myself in the glomen I'll not say things wrong till I've tried it over and over for maybe I have not a right grip of the thing overfall what can you expect David of a leaving corp and of that I twelve hundred corpse fewer times fifty twelve hundred an angel's turn in sailors and songs gone fleeing a boat like lava rocks and tummeling doomed again tired like cluts preserve us Janet do you believe at ever a serpent's spake put David the devil was in him you can the devil a word of that is the word itself though rejoined David with a smile David said Janet solemnly and with some consternation you're not going to tell me sitting there I did not believe Ilka word that's printed between the two boards of the Bible what will master Sutherland think of you Janet my bonny lass and here David's eyes beamed upon his wife I believe as many of them as you do and maybe a wean more my doubty keep your mind easy about that but you just see if folk were not altogether satisfied a bullet a serpent speaking and so they look at a boot and a boot till at last they found the devil in him good kins whether he was there or no knew you see who given he was to look we'll a boot the corpse and the angels and that queer stuff but oh it's bonny stuff TV we might fond in with the something we did not altogether expect though we was looking for it till the time so I'm out just think about it master Sutherland and I would feign or again before I lippin I'm given my opinion of the matter you could leave the book you sir we stick good care of it you're very welcome to that or any other book I have replied you who began to feel already as if he were in the hands of a superior money thanks but you see sir we have enough to chow upon for an odd day as or so by this time the potatoes were considered to be cooked and were accordingly separated off the fire the water was then poured away the lid put aside and the pot hung once more in the order that the potatoes might be thoroughly dry before they were served Margaret was now very busy spreading the cloth and laying spoons and plates on the table heroes to go we know by the subject in a most hospitable tone and take it head potato with us I'm afraid I can trouble some answered he I fear that given you can just put up with our homely meat make me apologies Janet my woman said David I had potatoes I good food for gentleness simple say you don't Mr. Sutherland making my do was the milk I thought hockey would have a dropy of het milk by this time said Margaret and so I just looted out the last but I'll have it drawn in two minutes and the way she went with the jug commonly called a decanter in that part of the north in her hand that's hardly fair play to hockey said David to Janet with a smile whoo David you see we have not a stranger ill conide but really said you I hope this is the last time you will consider me a stranger for I shall be here a great many times that is if you don't get tired of me give us the chance at least Sutherland it's no small privilege to folk like us to have a friend with some muck of book learning as you have sir I'm afraid it looks more to you than it really is well you see we might all look at the stars from the height of our own eye and you seem nired to them by a long growth in the loves of us my man you ought to be thankful with the true humility that comes of worshiping the truth David had not the smallest idea that he was immeasurably nearer to the stars than Hugh Sutherland Maggie having returned with her jug full of frothy milk and the potatoes being already heaped up in a wooden bowl or bossy in the middle of the table sending the smoke of their hospitality to the rafters Janet placed a smaller wooden bowl called a cow filled with deliciously yellow milk of hockey's latest gathering for each individual of the company with an attendant hornspoon by its side they all drew their chairs to the table and David asking no blessing as it was called but nevertheless giving thanks for the blessing already bestowed namely the perfect gift of food invited Hugh to make supper each imprimative but not ungraceful fashion took a potato from the dish with fingers and ate it bite and sup with the help of the hornspoon for the milk and could not help observing how far real good breeding is independent of the forms and refinements of what has assumed to itself the name of society soon after supper was over it was time for him to go so after kind handshaking and good nights David accompanied him to the road where he left him to find his way home by the starlight as he went he could not help pondering a little over the fact that a laboring man had discovered a difficulty perhaps a fault in one of his favorite poems which had never suggested itself to him he soon satisfied himself however by coming to the conclusion that the poet had not cared about the matter at all having had no further intention in the poem than Hugh himself had found in it namely witchery and loveliness but it seemed to the young student a wonderful fact that the intercourse which was denied him in the Laird's family simply from their utter incapacity of yielding it should be afforded him in the family of a man who had followed the plow himself once perhaps did so still having risen only to be the overseer and superior assistant of laborers he certainly felt on his way home much more reconciled to the prospect of his sojourn at Turry Puffett than he would have thought it possible he ever should David lingered a few moments looking up at the stars before he re-entered his cottage when he rejoined his wife and child he found the Bible already open on the table for their evening devotions I will close this chapter as I began the first with something like his prayer David's prayers were characteristic of the whole man but they also partook in far more than ordinary of the mood of the moment his last occupation had been stargazing although what keeps the stars elect in our souls is burning with the lit a boon that of the stars grant that thy may shine afford thee as the stars forever and ever and as thou hands the stars burning all the night when there is no man to see so hold thou the light burning in our souls when we see neither thee nor it but are buried in the grave of sleep and forgetfulness be thou by us even as a mother sits by the bedside of our alien wean and the long night only be thou nearer to us even in our very souls and watch over the world of dreams that they make for themselves grant that more and more thoughts of thy thinking may come into our hearts day by day till there shall be at last the open road between thee and us and thy angels may ascend and descend upon us so that we may be in thy heaven even while we are upon thy earth Amen This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org David Elgin Broad by George McDonald Chapter 5 The Students In wood and stone not the softest but hardest be always aptest for portraiture both fairest for pleasure and most durable for profit hard wits be hard to receive but sure to keep painful without weariness heedful without wavering constant without new fangleness bearing heavy things though not lightly yet willingly entering hard things though not easily yet deeply and so come to that perfectness of learning in the end that quick wits seem in hope but do not indeed or else very seldom ever attain unto Robert Aschum the school master two or three very simple causes united to prevent you from repeating his visit to David so soon as he would otherwise have done one was the fine weather continuing he was seized with the desire of exploring the neighborhood the spring wits set some wild animals to the construction of new dwellings incites man to the enlarging of his making as it were by discovery that wits lies around him his own so he spent the greater parts of several evenings in wandering about the neighborhood till at length the moonlight failed him another cause was that in the act of searching for some books for his boys in an old garret of the house which was at once lumber room and library he came upon some stray volumes of the waverly novels with which he was as yet only partially acquainted these absorbed many of his spare hours but one evening while reading the heart of Midlothian the thought struck him what a character David would have been for Sir Walter whether he was right or not is a question but the notion brought David so vividly before him that it roused the desire to see him he closed the book at once and went to the cottage no likely to call you on a thing but a stranger yet master Sutherland said David as he entered I've been busy since I saw you was all the excuse you offered we'll you're welcome new and you just come in time after all for it's no that money hours sin I found it all together to my own satisfaction found out what said you for he had forgotten all about the perplexity in which he had left David and which had been occupying his thoughts ever since their last interview crossbow in the birdie you can answered David in a tone of surprise yes to be sure how stupid of me said you we'll you see the meaning of the hail ballad is no that ill to win at seeing the poet himself tells us that it's just no to be proud or ill nature to our neighbors the beast and birds for God made on all of us but there's harder things in nor that and you honest the hardest you see it was just as an unlucky thoughtless deed of the poor all sailors and I'm thinking he was so reproached in his heart the minute he did it his mates was fell angry at him no for the kill in the poor innocent crater but for fear of ill luck in consequence when none followed they turned around and took away the character the poor beastie after twist died they approved of the very thing that was no doubt sorry for but anything to hold off them of themselves next sooner calm the calm then round they go again like the weather cock and nothing would content them but hanging the dead crater about the old man's craig and abusing him for by say you see who they were a weaned selfish creatures and a handle word nor the man that was let us stray into an ill deed but still he mount ruined so death got them and a king of leaving death and she death as to war and in some respects may be war then the other got grips of him poor old body it's a fair and rick to the backbone of the Ballant master Sutherland and that ties uphold he could not help feeling considerably astonished to hear this criticism from the lips of one whom he considered an uneducated man for he did not know that there are many other educations besides a college one some of them tending far more than that to develop the common sense or faculty of judging of things by their nature life intelligently met and honestly past is the best education of all except that higher one to which it is intended to lead and to which it had led David both these educations however were nearly unknown to the student of books but he was still more astonished to hear from the lips of Margaret who was sitting by that's it father that's it I was just edlin after that same thing myself or something like it but you put it in the right words exactly the sound of her voice drew Hugh's eyes upon her he was astonished at the alteration in her countenance while she spoke it was absolutely beautiful as soon as she sees speaking it settled back into its former shadowless calm her father gave her one approving glance and nod expressive of no surprise that her having approached the same discoveries himself the testifying pleasure at the coincidence of their opinions nothing was left for Hugh but to express his satisfaction with the interpretation of the difficulty and to add that the poem would henceforth possess fresh interest for him after this his visits became more frequent and at length David made a request which led to their greater frequency still it was to this effect do you think Mr. Sutherland I could do anything at my age at the mathematics I understand well enough who to measure land and that kind of thing I just follow the rule but the rule it's it sells a puzzler to me I did not understand it by half no it seems to me that the best of a rule is no to make you able to do a thing but to lead you to what makes the rule right to the principle of the thing it's no a time misbelieving the rule but I want to see the rights of it I've no doubt you could learn fast enough replied Hugh I shall be very happy to help you with it ne ne I'm no going to trouble you you have enough to do in that way but if you could just spare me on or two of your books whilst any of them and you think proper I should be muckled a bleach to you Hugh promised and fulfilled but the result was that before long both the father and the daughter were seated at the kitchen table every evening busy with Euclid and Algebra and that on most evenings Hugh was present as their instructor it was quite a new pleasure to him few delights surpassed those of imparting knowledge to the eager recipient what made Hugh's tutor life irksome was partly the excess of his desire to communicate over the desire of his pupils to partake but here there was no labor all the questions were asked by the scholars a single lesson had not passed however before David put questions which Hugh was unable to answer and concerning which he was obliged to confess his ignorance instead of being discouraged as eager questioners are very ready to be when they receive no answer David merely said we'll we mount by the we and went on with what he was able to master meantime Margaret though forced to like a good way behind her father and to apply much more frequently to their tutor for help yet secured all she got and that is great praise for any student she was not by any means remarkably quick but she knew when she did not understand and that is a sure and indispensable step towards understanding it is indeed a rare gift in the power of understanding itself the gratitude of David was too deep to be expressed in any formal things it broke out at times in two or three simple words when the conversation presented an opportunity or in the midst of their work as by its own self birth ungenerated by association during the lesson which often lasted more than two hours Janet would be busy about the room and in and out of it with the manifest prepare to suppress all unnecessary bustle as soon as he made his appearance she would put off the stout shoes man shoes as we should consider them which she always wore at other times and put on a pair of buckles that is an old pair of her Sunday shoes put down at heel and so converted into slippers with which she could move about less noisily at times her remarks would seem to imply that she considered it rather absurd in her husband to trouble himself with book learning but evidently on the ground that he knew everything already that was worthy of the honor of his acquaintance whereas with regard to Margaret her heart was as evidently full of pride as the idea of the education her daughter was getting from the Laird's own tutor now and then she would stand still for a moment and gaze at them with her bright black eyes from under the white frills of her much her bare brown arms a Kimbo and a look of pride upon her equally brown on his face her dress consisted of a wrapper or short loose jacket of printed calico and a blue winzy petticoat which she had a habit of tucking between her knees to keep it out of harm's way as often as she stooped to any wet work or more especially when doing anything by the fire Margaret's dress was an ordinary like her mother's with the exception of the cap but every evening when their master was expected she put off a wrapper and substituted a gown of the same material a cotton print and so with her plentiful dark hair gathered neatly under a net of brown silk the usual headdress of girls in her position both in and out of doors sat down dressed for the sacrament of wisdom David made no other preparation than the usual evening washing of his large well wrought hands and bathing of his head covered with thick dark hair plentifully lined with gray in a tub of cold water from which his face which was Kremsen dyed ingrained by the weather emerged glowing he sat down at the table in his usual rough blue coat and plain brass buttons with his breeches of broad striped corduroy his blue ribbed stockings and mother gaiters or quita cons disposed under the table and his shoes with five rows of broad headed nails in the soles projecting from beneath it on the other side for he was a tall man six feet still although five and fifty and considerably bent in the shoulders with hard work Sutherland style was that of a gentleman who must wear out his dress coat such was the group which three or four evenings in the week might be seen in David Elginbrod's cottage seated around the white deal table with their books and slates upon it and searching by the light of a tallow candle substituted as more convenient for the ordinary lamp after the mysteries of the universe the influences of reviving nature and of genial companionship operated very favorably upon his spirits and consequently upon his whole powers for some time he had as I have already hinted succeeded in interesting his boy pupils in their studies and now the progress they made began to be appreciable to themselves as well as to their tutor this of course made them more happy and more diligent there were no attempts now to work upon their parents for a holiday no real or pretended head or tooth aches whose disability was urged against the greater torture of ill-conceited mental labor they began in fact to understand and in proportion to the beauty and value of the thing understood to understand is to enjoy therefore the laird and his lady could not help seeing that the boys were doing well far better in fact than they had ever done before and consequently began not only to prize huge services but to think more highly of his office than had been their want the laird would now and then invite him to join him in a tumbler of toddy after dinner or in a ride round the farm after school hours but it must be confessed that these approaches to friendliness were rather like some to you for whatever the laird might have been as a collegian he was certainly now nothing more than a farmer where David Elginbrod would have described many a bonny sight the laird only saw the probable result of harvest in the shape of figures in his banking book on one occasion he roused his indignation by venturing to express his admiration of the delightful mingling of colors in a field where a good many scarlet poppies were among the green blades of the corn indicating to the agricultural eye the poverty of the soil where they were found this fault in the soil the laird like a child resented upon the poppies themselves nasty ugly weeds we'll have ye admiring the smut nest said he contemptuously because the barons can black one and others faces with it but surely said he you putting other considerations aside that the color especially when mingled with that of the corn is beautiful they'll have it it's just there at I cannot abide the sight of it beauty may call it I see none of it I'd as soon have a red haired baron as see the red coated rascals in my corn I hope you're no going to cramp stuff like that into the heads of the two laddies face we'll have them sawn the ill-fared weeds among the weight nest we call them well I what that they're the pops and barons and the scarlet woman to the mother of them ha ha ha having manifested both wit and Protestantism in the closing sentence of his objugation the laird relapsed into good humor and stupidity he would gladly have spent such hours in David's cottage instead but he was hardly prepared to refuse his company to Mr. Glassford End Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of David Elginbrod this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit www.librivox.org David Elginbrod Chapter 6 The Laird's Lady ye artswise standeth at defense sin ye been strong as a great camel ne'er suffer not that men ye don the fence and slender wives fell as in betail Beth eager as is a tiger yonder nined I clap it as an mill I you can't sail Chaucer, the clerk's tale the length and frequency of Hugh's absences careless as she was of his presence had already attracted the attention of Mrs. Glassford very little trouble had to be expended on the discovery of his haunt for the servants knew well enough where he went and of course had come to their own conclusions as to the object of his visits so the lady chose to think at her duty to expostulate with Hugh on the subject accordingly one morning after breakfast the Laird having gone to mount his horse and the boys to have a few minutes play before lessons Mrs. Glassford, who had kept her seat at the head of the table waiting for the opportunity turned towards Hugh who sat reading the week's news folded her hands on the tablecloth threw herself up yet a little more stiffly in her chair and thus addressed him it's my duty Mr. Sutherland seen ye have no mother to look after ye Hugh expected something matronly about his linen or his socks and put down his newspaper with a smile but to his astonishment she went on with ye on the impropriety of going so often to David Elginbrods they're not company for a young gentleman like you Mr. Sutherland they're good company enough for a poor tutor Mrs. Glassford replied Hugh foolishly enough not at all not at all insisted the lady with your connections good gracious whoever said anything about my connections I never pretended to have any Hugh was getting angry already Mrs. Glassford nodded her head significantly as much as to say I know more about you than you imagine and then went on your mother will never forgive me if you get into a scrape with that smooth-faced hussy and if her father an honest man hasn't eyes enough in his head other people have I and tongues too Mr. Sutherland Hugh was on the point of forgetting his manners and consigning all the above mentioned organs to perdition but he managed to restrain his wrath and merely said that Margaret was one of the best girls he had ever known and that there was no possible danger of any kind of scrape with her this mode of argument however was not calculated to satisfy Mrs. Glassford she returned to the charge she's a sly pos with her shy heirs and graces her father's just daft with conceit of her and it's new to be surprised if she cast a glamour over you Mr. Sutherland you're but young yet Hugh's pride presented any alliance with the lassie who had herded the lair's cows barefoot and even now tended their own cow as an all but inconceivable absurdity and he resented more than he could have thought possible the entertainment of such a degrading idea in the mind of Mrs. Glassford indignation prevented him from replying while she went on getting more vernacular as she proceeded it's no for lack of company yet you're driven to seek theirs I'm sure there's two as fine lads as good scholars as you'll find in the hail kintracide no to mention the lair in my cell but Hugh could bear it no longer nor would he condescend to excuse or explain his conduct Madam I beg you will not mention this subject again but I will mention it Mr. Sutherland and if you'll may listen to reason I'll go to them at my own do it I'm accountable to you madam for my conduct in your house and for the way in which I discharge my duty to your children no further do you call that discharge in your duty to my barons to set them the example of hanging out at queen's apron strings and fill in your lug with idle havers call you that discharge in your duty must certainly a bonny discharging I never see the girl but in her father and mother's presence we'll we'll Mr. Sutherland said Mrs. Glassford in a final tone and trying to smother the anger which she felt had allowed to carry her further than was decorous we'll say no more booted at present but I might just speak to the lair himself and see what he says to it and with this threat she walked out of the room in what she considered a dignified manner Hugh was exceedingly annoyed at this treatment and thought at first of throwing up his situation at once but he got calmer by degrees and saw that it would be to his own loss and perhaps to the injury of his friends at the cottage so he took his revenge by recalling the excited face of Mrs. Glassford whose nose had got as red with passion as the protubance of a turkey cock when gobbling out its unutterable feelings of disdain he dwelt upon the soothing contemplation till a fit of laughter relieved him and he was able to go and join his pupils as if nothing had happened meanwhile the lady sent for David who was at work in the garden into no less an audience chamber than the drawing room the revered abode of all the tutular deities of the house chief amongst which were the portraits of the lair and herself he plethoric and wrapped in voluminous folds of necrochief she long necked and leaned and bare shouldered the original of the latter work of art seated herself in the most important share in the room and when David after carefully carefully wiping the shoes he had already wiped three times on his way up entered with the respectful but no wise obsequious bow she ordered him with the air of an empress to shut the door when he had obeyed she ordered him in a similar tone to be seated for she sought to mingle condescension and conciliation with severity David she then began I am informed that you keep open door to our Mr. Sunderland and that he spends most fortites in your company we'll ma'am it's very true was all David's answer he sat in an expectant attitude David I want her at ye return Mrs. Glassford forgetting her dignity and becoming confidentially remonstrative he's a young gentleman of talents with Ilka prospect of wagging his head and poop it some day and he ate at a bet him at idling away his time in your chimna log doing war nor nothing avla I'm surprised at you David I thought he may or sense David looked out of his clear blue untroubled eyes upon the ruffled countenance of his mistress with an almost paternal smile we'll ma'am I'm not sad didn't I just think the young man's in the worst of company when he's at our inglenook and for idling of his time away it's well warred for himself for by for us given holy words banalees what do you mean David said the lady rather sharply for she loved no riddles I mean this ma'am that the young man is just acting the part of Peter and John at the bonny gate of the temple when they said such as I have give I thee and given it be more blessed to give than to receive as Saint Paul said as the master himself said the young man will know be the war off in his own learning that he imparts of it to them that hunger for it you mean by this David given you could express yourself to the point at the young man what's or well paid to instruct my barons neglects them and lays himself oot upon other folks weans who have no right to add a laboon the station in which their maker put them this was uttered with quite a religious fervor of expostulation for the ladies natural indignation at the thought of Meg Elginbrod having lessons from her boys tutor was cowed beneath the quiet steady gaze of the noble minded peasant father he lays himself oot more upon the other folk themselves than upon their weans ma'am though they doubt my Maggie comes in for a good share before neglecting of his duty to you ma'am I'm sure I cannot who that can be for it was only a dream that the Laird himself said to me at who the barons had never gotten on nothing like it with any other body the Laird's already with clevers quote the Laird's wife nettle to find herself in the wrong and forgetful of her own and her lord's dignity at once but she pursued all I can say is that I considered very improper of you with the young less baron to encourage this knackly visits of a young gentleman who so far booned her in station in dootless will someday be farther yet ma'am said David with dignity I'm willing to understand what you mean my Maggie's no one it needs looking after and a body had need to be careful and no interfere with the Laird's herden for he calls himself the shepherd of the sheep and will I lo her I'm out to leave him to lead them who follow him wherever he goeth she'll no be ill guided and I'm willing to keep her until could turn real well that's your own affair David my man rejoin Mrs. Glassford with rising voice and complexion and that I have to add is just this at as long as my tutor visits her he visits her no more than me ma'am and propose David but his mistress went on with dignified disregard of the interruption visits her I cannot for the sake of my own bairns and the morals of my household employ her about the house and I was in the way of doing before good morning David I'll speak to the Laird himself since you'll no heed me it's more to my lasting ma'am excuse me to learn to the understanding the works of a maker than it is to be employed in your household money thanks ma'am for what you have done and in that way and good morning to you ma'am I'm sorry we should have any misunderstanding but I cannot help it for my part with these words David withdrew rather anxious about the consequences to you of this unpleasant interference on the part of Mrs. Glassford that ladies wrath kept warm without much nursing till the Laird came home when she turned the whole of her battery upon him and kept up a steady fire until he did and promised to turn his upon David but he had more common sense than his wife in some things and saw at once how ridiculous it would be to treat the affair as of importance so the next time he saw David he addressed himself half jocularly we'll David you and the mistress have been having a bit of a dispute this gathering we'll sir we were not all together of the same minds said David with a smile we'll will we'll not hummer here you can or it may be the war for us all you can and the lord nodded with humorous significance I'm sure I should be glad sir but this is no small matter to me in my Maggie for we're just going food for the very soul sir from him at his books could not you be content with the books without the man David we should make but small progress sir that yet the Laird began to be a little meddled himself David's stiffness about such a small matter and held his peace David resumed besides sir that's a matter for the young man to settle and know for me it would ill become me after all he's done for us to stake the door in his face as long as I have a door to hold open it's no to be staked to him after all the door's mine David said the Laird as long as I'm in your hoose and in your service sir the door's mine retorted David quietly the Laird turned and rode away without another word what passed between him and his wife never transpired nothing more was said to you as long as he remained at Turry Puffett but Margaret was never sent for to the house after this upon any occasion whatever the Laird gave her a nod as often as he saw her but the lady if they chance to meet took no notice of her Margaret on her part stood her past with the ground and no further change of countenance than a slight flush of discomfort the lessons went on as usual and happy hours they were for all those concerned often in after years and in far different circumstances the thoughts of Hugh reverted with a painful yearning to the dim lighted cottage with its clay floor and its deal table to the earnest pair seated with him at the labors that unfold the motions of the stars and even to the homely thick set but active form of Janet and that peculiar smile of hers with which after an apparently snappist speech spoken with her back to the person addressed she would turn round her on his face half apologetically and shine full upon someone or other of the three with whom she honored with her whole heart and soul and who she feared might be offended at what she called her home or fashion of speaking indeed it was wonderful what a share the motherhood of this woman incapable as she was of entering into the intellectual occupations of the others had in producing that sense of home blessedness which in wrapped Hugh also in the folds of its hospitality and drew him towards its heart certain it is that not one of the three would have worked so well without the sense of the presence of Janet here and there about the room or in the immediate neighborhood of it love watching over labor once a week always on Saturday nights Hugh stayed to supper with them and on these occasions Janet contrived to have something better than ordinary in honor of their guest still it was of the homeliest country fair such as you could partake of without the least fear that his presence occasioned any inconvenience to his entertainers nor was Hugh the only giver of spiritual food putting aside the rich gifts of human affection and sympathy which grew more and more pleasant I can hardly use a stronger word yet to Hugh every day many things were spoken by the simple wisdom of David which would have enlightened you far more than they did had he been sufficiently advanced to receive them but their very simplicity was often far beyond the grasp of his thoughts for the higher we rise the simpler we become and David was one of those of whom is the kingdom of heaven there is a childhood into which we have to grow just as there is a childhood which we must leave behind a child likeness which is the highest gain of humanity and a childishness from which but few of those who are counted the wisest among men have freed themselves in their imagined progress toward the reality of things this ends chapter six chapter seven of David Elgin Broad by George McDonald this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit www.librivox.org David Elgin Broad by George McDonald chapter seven the secret of the wood the unthrift sun shot vital gold a thousand pieces and heaven it says your did unfold checkered with snowy fleeces the air was all in spice and every bush a garland war thus fed my eyes but all the ear lay hush Henry Vaughan it was not in mathematics alone that Hugh Sutherland was serviceable to Margaret Elgin Broad that branch of study had been chosen for her father not for her but her desire to learn had led her to lay hold upon any mental provision with which the table happened to be spread and the more eagerly that her father was a guest at the same feast before long he thought him that it might possibly be a service to her in the course of her reading if he taught her English a little more thoroughly than she had probably picked it up at the Paris school to which she had been in the habit of going to within a very short period of her acquaintance with the tutor the English reader must not suppose the term Paris school to mean what the same England boys and girls of very different ranks go to the scotch Paris schools and the fees are so small as to place their education within the reach of almost a humblest means to his proposal to this effect Margaret responded thankfully and it gave Hugh an opportunity of directing her attention to many of the more delicate distinctions in literature for the appreciation of which she manifested at once a remarkable aptitude Coleridge's poems had been read long ago some of them indeed almost committed to memory in the process of repeated perusal no doubt a good many of them must have been as yet to abtruse for her not in the least however from an aptitude in her for such subjects as they treated of but simply because neither the terms nor the modes of thought could possibly have been as yet presented to her in so many different positions as to enable her to comprehend their scope Hugh lent her Sir Walter's poems next but though she read at an eye glance she returned the volume in a week saying merely they were very honest stories he sought once that to have done them justice with the girl he ought to have lent them first but that could not be helped now and what should come next upon this he took thought his library was too small to cause much perplexity of choice but for a few days he continued undecided meantime the interest he felt in his girl pupil deepened greatly she became a kind of study to him the expression of her countenance was far inferior to her intelligence and power of thought it was still too excess almost dull and ordinary not from any fault in the mold of the features except perhaps in the upper lip which seemed efficient in drawing if I may be allowed the expression but from the absence of that light which indicates the presence of active thought and feeling within in this respect her face was like the earthen picture of Gideon it concealed the light she seemed to have to a peculiar degree the faculty of retiring inside but now and then while he was talking to her and doubtful from the lack of expression whether she was even listening with attention to what he was saying her face would lighten up with the radiant smile of intelligence not however throwing the light upon him and in a moment reverting to its former condition of still twilight her person seemed not to be as yet thoroughly possessed or informed by her spirit it set apart within her and there was no ready transit from her heart to her face this lack of presence in the face is quite common in pretty school girls and rustic beauties but it was manifest to an unusual degree in the case of Margaret yet most of the forms and lines in her face were lovely and when the light did shine through them for a passing moment her countenance seemed absolutely beautiful hence it grew into an almost haunting temptation with you to try to produce this expression to unveil the coy light of the beautiful soul often he tried often he failed and sometimes he succeeded had they been alone it might have become dangerous I mean for you I cannot tell for Margaret when they first met she had just completed her 17th year but at an age when a town bread girl is all but a woman her manners were those of a child this childishness however soon began to disappear and the peculiar stillness of her face of which I have already said so much made her seem older than she was it was now early summer and all the other trees in the wood of which there were not many besides the furs of various kinds had put on their fresh leaves heaped up in green clouds between the wanderer and the heavens in the morning the sun shone so clear upon these that to the eyes of one standing beneath the light seemed to dissolve them away to the most ethereal forms of glorified foliage they were to be claimed for earth only by the shadows that the one cast upon the other visible from below through the transparent leaf this effect is very lovely in the young season of the year when the leaves are more delicate and less crowded and especially in the early morning when the light is most clear and penetrating by the way I do not think any man is compelled to bid goodbye to his childhood every man may feel young in the morning middle aged in the afternoon and old at night a day corresponds to a life and the portions of the one and the features and little of the seasons of the other thus far man may rule even time and gather up in a perfect being youth in age at once one morning about six o'clock Hugh who had never been so early in the woods since the day he met Margaret there was standing under a beech tree looking up through its multitudinous leaves illuminated as I have attempted to describe with the side long rays of the brilliant sun he was feeling young and observing the forms of nature with a keen discriminating gaze that was all fond of writing verses he was studying nature not as a true lover but as one who would hereafter turn his discoveries to use for it must be confessed that nature affected him chiefly through the medium of poetry and that he was far more ambitious of writing beautiful things about nature than of discovering and understanding for their own sakes he had never hidden yet patent meanings changing his attitude after a few moments he decried under another beech tree not far from him Margaret standing and looking up fixedly as he had been doing a moment before he approached her and she hearing his advance looked and saw him but did not move he thought he saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes she was the first to speak however what were you seeing up there Mr. Sutherland I was only looking at the bright leaves and the shadows upon them ah I thought maybe you had seen something what do you mean Margaret I did not rightly ken myself but I expect to see something in this fur wood I'm here most mornings in the day dawns but I'm the later the day we were later than usual at our work last night but what kind of thing do you expect to see that's just what I did not ken I cannot mind when I began to come here first looking for something I've tried money and time but I cannot mind do what I like Margaret had never said so much about herself before I can account for it only on the supposition that Hugh had gradually assumed in her mind a kind of pastoral superiority which at a favorable moment inclined her to impart her thoughts to him but he did not know what to say to this strange fact in her history she went on to say however as if having broken the eyes she must sweep it away as well the only thing that helps me to account for it is a picture in our old bible of the angel sitting underneath the tree and handed up his hand as again he was speaking to a woman at stand in the forum at this time and I come across that picture I feel directly as given I were my lane in the fur wood here so I suppose that when I was a wee bear and I might have come out some morning my loan with the expectation of seeing an angel here waiting for me to speak to me like though on in the bible but never an angel have I seen yet I have an expectation like I've seen something I cannot what for the whole place I seems full of the presence of the frontal moor to man or the Kirk in the sermon for by and for the singing the sound in the fur taps is far more solemn and sweet at the same time and muckle more like praising of God than of the psalms there gather but I think given I could hear Milton playing on his organ it would be more like that sound of mini waters than anything else I can think of he stood and gazed at her in astonishment to his more refined ear there was a strange incongruity between the somewhat coarse dialect in which she spoke and the things she uttered in it not that he was capable of entering into her feelings much less of explaining them to her he felt that there was something remarkable in them but attributed both the thoughts themselves and their influence on him to an uncommon and weird imagination as of such origin however he was just the one to value them highly those are very strange ideas he said but what can there be about the wood the very primrose as you brought me the first to spring yourself Mr. Sutherland come out at the fit of the trees and look at me as if they said we can we can all about it but never a word more this say there's something by ordinary in it do you like no other place besides said you for the sake of saying something oh I'm on Eon but none like this what kind of place do you like best I like places with green grass and flowers a month you like flowers then like them whilst they gar me greet and while they gar me laugh but there's more in them than that and in the wood too I cannot rightly say my prayers in only other place the Scotch dialect especially the one brought up in Highlands was a considerable antidote to the effect of the beauty of what Margaret said suddenly it struck you that if Margaret were such an admirer of nature possibly she might enjoy Wordsworth he himself was as yet incapable of doing him anything like justice and with the arrogance of youth did not hesitate to smile at the excursion picking out an awkward line here and there as a special food for laughter even but many of his smaller pieces he enjoyed very hardly although not thoroughly the development of Christian Panteism which is their soul being beyond his comprehension almost perception as yet so he made up his mind after a moment's reflection that this should be the next author he recommended to his pupil he hoped likewise so to end an interview in which he might otherwise be compelled to confess that he could render Margaret no assistance in the search after the something in the wood and he was unwilling to say he could not understand her for a power of universal sympathy was one of those mental gifts which he was most anxious to believe he possessed I will bring you another book tonight said he which I think you will like in which may perhaps help you find out what is in the wood he said this smiling half in playful jest and without any idea of the degree of likelihood that there was notwithstanding in what he said for certainly Wordsworth the high priest of nature though perhaps hardly the apostle of nature correctly than any other writer to contain something of the secret after which Margaret was searching whether she can find it there may seem questionable thank you sir said Margaret gratefully but her whole countenance looked troubled as she turned towards her home doubtless however the trouble vanished before she reached it for hers was not a nature to cherish disquietude he too went home rather thoughtful in the evening he took a volume of Wordsworth and repaired according to his want to David's cottage it was Saturday and he would stay to supper after they had given the usual time to their studies Hugh setting Margaret some exercises in English to write on her slate while he helped David with some of the elements of trigonometry and again going over these elements with her while David worked out a calculation after these were over and while Janet was putting the supper on the table Hugh pulled out his volume and without any preface he read them the leech gatherer all listened very intently Janet included who delayed several of the operations that she might lose no word of the verses David nodding his scent every now and then and ejaculating I, I, or hey man or producing that strange muffled sound at once common and peculiar discouragement which cannot be expressed in letters by near-approach then H.M. slash H.M. uttered it can be called uttering closed lips and open nasal passages and Margaret sitting motionless on her creepy with upturned pale face and eyes turned upon the lips of the reader when he had ceased all were silent for a moment when Janet made some little sign of anxiety about her supper which certainly had suffered by the delay then without a word David turned towards the table and gave thanks turning again to Hugh who had risen to place his chair he said that might be the work of a great poet Mr. Sutherland it's words worse said Hugh I, I, that's words worse I well I've just heard him made mention of but I never read word of his or for and he never repented of that same resolution as warrant that he ends off with who doesn't go on Mr. Sutherland Sutherland read God said I be my help and stay secure I'll think of the leech gatherer on the lonely moor and added it is said Wordsworth never knew what it was to be in want of money all his life Ned out Ned out he trusted in him it was for the sake of the minute notices of nature and not for the religious lesson which he now seemed to see for the first time that Hugh had read the poem he could not help being greatly impressed by the confidence with which David received the statement he had just made on the authority of De Quincey in his unpleasant article about Wordsworth David resumed he mount have had a glaggy of his own that master Wordsworth to notice a thing that get well he mount have like it leaving things poor Malcolm on all just like where Robbie burns for that and see who they all can want another thou poets what says he about Barnes you need not tell me master Sutherland I mind it well enough he says him walking in a glory and enjoy following his plough upon the mountainside poor Robbie poor Robbie but mine he was a grandchild after all and I trust in God he's one home by this both Janet and Hugh who had a very orthodox education started mentally at this strange utterance but they saw the eye of David solemnly fixed in deep contemplation and lighted in its blue depths with an ethereal brightness and neither of them ventured to speak Margaret seemed absorbed for the moment in gazing on her father's face but not in the least as if it perplexed her like the fur would to the scene I the same kind of expression would have been evident in both countenances as if Margaret's reflected the meaning of her father's whether through the medium of intellectual sympathy out of the hard only it would have been hard to say meantime supper had been rather neglected but its operations were now resumed more honestly and the conversation became lighter till at last it ended in hardy laughter and Hugh rose and took his leave chapter seven chapter eight of David Elgin Broad by George McDonald this is a LibraVox recording all LibraVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit www.libravox.org David Elgin Broad by George McDonald chapter eight a Sunday morning it is the property of good and sound knowledge to putrefy and dissolve into a number of subtle idle unwholesome and as I may term them vermiculite questions which have indeed a kind of quickness and life of spirit but no soundness or matter or goodness of quality Lord Bacon advancement of learning the following morning the Laird's family went to church as usual and Hugh went with them their walk was first across fields by pleasant footpaths and then up the valley of a little noisy stream they ostensibly refused to keep Scott Sabbath praising the Lord after its own fashion they emerged into rather oblique country before reaching the church which was quite new and perched on a barren eminence that it might be as conspicuous by its position as it was remarkable for its ugliness one grand aim of the reformers of the Scottish ecclesiastical modes appears to have been to keep the worship pure and the worshippers sincere including the whole in the ugliest forms that could be associated with the name of Christianity it might be wished however that some of their followers and amongst them the clergymen of the church in question had been content to stop there and had left the object of worship as represented by them in the possession of some lovable attribute so as not to require a man to love that which is unlovable or worship that which is not honourable and to bow down before that which is not divine because of this degeneracy they share in common with the followers of all other great men as well as of Calvin they take up what their leader urged by the necessity of the time spoke loudest never heeding what he loved most and then worked the former out to a logical perdition of everything belonging to the latter Hugh however thought it was alright for he had the same good reasons and no other for receiving it all that a Mohammedan or a Buddhist has for holding his opinions namely that he had heard those doctrines and those alone from his earliest childhood he was therefore a good deal startled when having on his way home strayed from the Laird's party towards David's he heard the latter say to Margaret as he came up did not ye believe my Bonnie do that there's only make ups or make shifts with him bringing things to the light no covering them up and letting them rot and the moth tack them he sees us just as we are and calls us just what we are it would be an ill day for all of us making my do given he were to close his eye towards sins and call us just in his sight when we could not possibly be just in our own or in any other bodies no to say is the Lord preserve us David Elginrod do not ye believe in the doctrine of justification by faith and ye must made an elder of Janet was the respondent of course Margaret listened in silence oh aye I believe in it and they do it but trouth the minister honest man near hand garth me disbelieve in it all together with his grand sermon this morning about imputed righteousness and a clean robe hiding a foul skin or a crooked back nay nay may him at whoosh his feet and his friends wash us all together and straight our crooked bones not till we are clean and well far like his own bonny self well David but that's sanctification you can call it on a name that you or the minister like Janet my woman I dare say there is neither of you far wrong after all only this is just my opinion but it in the small that that man and that man only is justified what pits himself into the Lord's hands to sanctify him new and that will no be done by putting a robe of righteousness upon him before he got in a clean skin and eat it as given a father could not buy to see the poor scabbit skin of his own wee bit bernie I or his prodigal son either but would to hop it us up before he could let it come near him Allah hear Hugh ventured to interpose a remark but you don't think Mr. Algenbrod that the minister intended to say that justification left a man at liberty to sin or that the robe of Christ's righteousness would hide him from the work of the spirit nay but there is nothing in it of hiding from God himself I tell you what it is Mr. Sutherland the ministers are right in himself and so is my Janet here and many more and abelins there is a kind of truth in it all that they say but this is my quarrel with all them words and arguments and semiles as they call them and doctrines and all that they just hauled the poor body at arms linked with the aura from God himself and they raise him most in a store all about him and the poor bernie cannot see the father himself standing with his arms streaked with his wide as the heavens to take the worn creature and the more sinner the more welcome home to his very heart given a body would leave out that and just get folk persuaded to spake a word or two to God him alone the loss in my opinion would be uncle small and again very great even Janet dare not reply to the solemnity of this speech for the seer-like look was upon David's face and the tears had gathered in his eyes and dimmed their blue a kind of tremulous pathetic smile flickered about his beautifully curved mouth like the glimmer of water in a valley wicks the lofty aquiline nose and the powerful the finely modeled chin it seemed as if he dared not let the smile break out lest it should be followed instantly by burst of tears Margaret went close up to her father and took his hand as if she had been still a child while Janet walked reverentially by him on the other side it must not be supposed that Janet felt any uneasiness about her husband's opinions although she never hesitated to utter what she considered her common sense notions in attempted modification of some of the more extreme of them the fact was that if he was wrong Janet did not care to be right and if he was right Janet was sure to be for said she and in spirit if not in letter it was quite true never mind that contradicting him my man so have his own get that cell be but she had won a special grudge at his opinions which was that it must have been in consequence of them that he had declined with a queer smile the honorable position of elder of the Kirk for which Janet considered him not withstanding his opinions immeasurably more fitted than any other man in the whole countryside you may add Scotland for by the fact of his having been requested to fill the vacant place of elder is proof enough that David was not in the habit of giving open expression to his opinions he was looked upon as a deuce man long-headed enough and somewhat precise in the exaction of the lairds rights but open-hearted and open-handed with what was his own everyone respected him and felt kindly towards him somewhere a little afraid of him but few suspected him of being religious beyond the degree which is commonly supposed to be the general inheritance of Scotchman possibly in virtue of their being brought up upon oatmeal porridge and the shorter catechism he walked behind the party for a short way contemplating them in their Sunday clothes David wore a suit of fine black cloth he then turned to rejoin the lairds company mrs. glassford was questioning her boys in an intermittent and disultry fashion about the sermon and what was the fourth had can you tell me willy willy the oldest who had carefully impressed the fourth head upon his memory and had been anxiously awaiting for an opportunity of bringing it out replied at once fourthly the various appellations by which those who have in due the robe of righteousness are designated in holy writ well done willy cried the laird that's right willy said the mother then turning to the younger whose attention was attracted by a strange bird in the hedge in front and what called he them johnny what put on the robe she asked why did sephal curse johnny indebted for his wit to his wool gathering this put an end to the catechizing mrs. glassford glanced around at hue whose defection she had seen with indignation and who waiting for them by the roadside had heard the last question and reply with an expression that seemed to attribute any defect in the answer entirely to the carelessness of the tutor and the withdrawal of his energies from her boys to that saucy quaint meg elgenrod