CHAPTER I
I SET OFF UPON MY JOURNEY TO THE HOUSE OF SHAWS
I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain morning early inthe month of June, the year of grace 1751, when I took the key for thelast time out of the door of my father's house. The sun began to shineupon the summit of the hills as I went down the road; and by the timeI had come as far as the manse, the blackbirds were whistling in thegarden lilacs, and the mist that hung around the valley in the time ofthe dawn was beginning to arise and die away.
Mr. Campbell, the minister of Essendean, was waiting for me by thegarden gate, good man! He asked me if I had breakfasted; and hearingthat I lacked for nothing, he took my hand in both of his and clapped itkindly under his arm.
"Well, Davie, lad," said he, "I will go with you as far as the ford, toset you on the way." And we began to walk forward in silence.
"Are ye sorry to leave Essendean?" said he, after awhile.
"Why, sir," said I, "if I knew where I was going, or what was likelyto become of me, I would tell you candidly. Essendean is a good placeindeed, and I have been very happy there; but then I have never beenanywhere else. My father and mother, since they are both dead, I shallbe no nearer to in Essendean than in the Kingdom of Hungary, and, tospeak truth, if I thought I had a chance to better myself where I wasgoing I would go with a good will."
"Ay?" said Mr. Campbell. "Very well, Davie. Then it behoves me to tellyour fortune; or so far as I may. When your mother was gone, and yourfather (the worthy, Christian man) began to sicken for his end, he gaveme in charge a certain letter, which he said was your inheritance. 'Sosoon,' says he, 'as I am gone, and the house is redd up and the geardisposed of' (all which, Davie, hath been done), 'give my boy thisletter into his hand, and start him off to the house of Shaws, not farfrom Cramond. That is the place I came from,' he said, 'and it's whereit befits that my boy should return. He is a steady lad,' your fathersaid, 'and a canny goer; and I doubt not he will come safe, and be welllived where he goes.'"
"The house of Shaws!" I cried. "What had my poor father to do with thehouse of Shaws?"
"Nay," said Mr. Campbell, "who can tell that for a surety? But the nameof that family, Davie, boy, is the name you bear--Balfours of Shaws:an ancient, honest, reputable house, peradventure in these latterdays decayed. Your father, too, was a man of learning as befitted hisposition; no man more plausibly conducted school; nor had he the manneror the speech of a common dominie; but (as ye will yourself remember)I took aye a pleasure to have him to the manse to meet the gentry; andthose of my own house, Campbell of Kilrennet, Campbell of Dunswire,Campbell of Minch, and others, all well-kenned gentlemen, had pleasurein his society. Lastly, to put all the elements of this affair beforeyou, here is the testamentary letter itself, superscrived by the ownhand of our departed brother."
He gave me the letter, which was addressed in these words: "To the handsof Ebenezer Balfour, Esquire, of Shaws, in his house of Shaws, thesewill be delivered by my son, David Balfour." My heart was beating hardat this great prospect now suddenly opening before a lad of seventeenyears of age, the son of a poor country dominie in the Forest ofEttrick.
"Mr. Campbell," I stammered, "and if you were in my shoes, would yougo?"
"Of a surety," said the minister, "that would I, and without pause.A pretty lad like you should get to Cramond (which is near in byEdinburgh) in two days of walk. If the worst came to the worst, andyour high relations (as I cannot but suppose them to be somewhat of yourblood) should put you to the door, ye can but walk the two days backagain and risp at the manse door. But I would rather hope that ye shallbe well received, as your poor father forecast for you, and for anythingthat I ken come to be a great man in time. And here, Davie, laddie," heresumed, "it lies near upon my conscience to improve this parting, andset you on the right guard against the dangers of the world."
Here he cast about for a comfortable seat, lighted on a big boulderunder a birch by the trackside, sate down upon it with a very long,serious upper lip, and the sun now shining in upon us between two peaks,put his pocket-handkerchief over his cocked hat to shelter him. There,then, with uplifted forefinger, he first put me on my guard against aconsiderable number of heresies, to which I had no temptation, and urgedupon me to be instant in my prayers and reading of the Bible. That done,he drew a picture of the great house that I was bound to, and how Ishould conduct myself with its inhabitants.
"Be soople, Davie, in things immaterial," said he. "Bear ye this inmind, that, though gentle born, ye have had a country rearing. Dinnaeshame us, Davie, dinnae shame us! In yon great, muckle house, with allthese domestics, upper and under, show yourself as nice, as circumspect,as quick at the conception, and as slow of speech as any. As for thelaird--remember he's the laird; I say no more: honour to whom honour.It's a pleasure to obey a laird; or should be, to the young."
"Well, sir," said I, "it may be; and I'll promise you I'll try to makeit so."
"Why, very well said," replied Mr. Campbell, heartily. "And now to cometo the material, or (to make a quibble) to the immaterial. I have herea little packet which contains four things." He tugged it, as he spoke,and with some great difficulty, from the skirt pocket of his coat. "Ofthese four things, the first is your legal due: the little pickle moneyfor your father's books and plenishing, which I have bought (as I haveexplained from the first) in the design of re-selling at a profit tothe incoming dominie. The other three are gifties that Mrs. Campbell andmyself would be blithe of your acceptance. The first, which is round,will likely please ye best at the first off-go; but, O Davie, laddie,it's but a drop of water in the sea; it'll help you but a step, andvanish like the morning. The second, which is flat and square andwritten upon, will stand by you through life, like a good staff for theroad, and a good pillow to your head in sickness. And as for the last,which is cubical, that'll see you, it's my prayerful wish, into a betterland."
With that he got upon his feet, took off his hat, and prayed a littlewhile aloud, and in affecting terms, for a young man setting out intothe world; then suddenly took me in his arms and embraced me very hard;then held me at arm's length, looking at me with his face all workingwith sorrow; and then whipped about, and crying good-bye to me, set offbackward by the way that we had come at a sort of jogging run. It mighthave been laughable to another; but I was in no mind to laugh. I watchedhim as long as he was in sight; and he never stopped hurrying, nor oncelooked back. Then it came in upon my mind that this was all his sorrowat my departure; and my conscience smote me hard and fast, because I,for my part, was overjoyed to get away out of that quiet country-side,and go to a great, busy house, among rich and respected gentlefolk of myown name and blood.
"Davie, Davie," I thought, "was ever seen such black ingratitude? Canyou forget old favours and old friends at the mere whistle of a name?Fie, fie; think shame."
And I sat down on the boulder the good man had just left, and opened theparcel to see the nature of my gifts. That which he had called cubical,I had never had much doubt of; sure enough it was a little Bible, tocarry in a plaid-neuk. That which he had called round, I found to be ashilling piece; and the third, which was to help me so wonderfully bothin health and sickness all the days of my life, was a little piece ofcoarse yellow paper, written upon thus in red ink:
"TO MAKE LILLY OF THE VALLEY WATER.--Take the flowers of lilly of thevalley and distil them in sack, and drink a spooneful or two as there isoccasion. It restores speech to those that have the dumb palsey. It isgood against the Gout; it comforts the heart and strengthens the memory;and the flowers, put into a Glasse, close stopt, and set into ane hillof ants for a month, then take it out, and you will find a liquor whichcomes from the flowers, which keep in a vial; it is good, ill or well,and whether man or woman."