Part 12 (2/2)
”No s.h.i.+ps of war, or sloops?”
”None,” replied the pedlar, ”since the Kite Tender sailed with the impress men. If it was His will, and our men were out of her, I wish the deep sea had her!”
”Were there no news at Burgh-Westra?--Were the family all well?”
”A' weel, and weel to do--out-taken, it may be, something ower muckle daffing and laughing--dancing ilk night, they say, wi' the stranger captain that's living there--him that was ash.o.r.e on Sumburgh-head the tother day,--less daffing served him then.”
”Daffing! dancing every night!” said Mordaunt, not particularly well satisfied--”Whom does Captain Cleveland dance with?”
”Ony body he likes, I fancy,” said the jagger; ”at ony rate, he gars a'
body yonder dance after his fiddle. But I ken little about it, for I am no free in conscience to look upon thae flinging fancies. Folk should mind that life is made but of rotten yarn.”
”I fancy that it is to keep them in mind of that wholesome truth, that you deal in such tender wares, Bryce,” replied Mordaunt, dissatisfied as well with the tenor of the reply, as with the affected scruples of the respondent.
”That's as muckle as to say, that I suld hae minded you was a flinger and a fiddler yoursell, Maister Mordaunt; but I am an auld man, and maun unburden my conscience. But ye will be for the dance, I sall warrant, that's to be at Burgh-Westra, on John's Even, (_Saunt_ John's, as the blinded creatures ca' him,) and nae doubt ye will be for some warldly braws--hose, waistcoats, or sic like? I hae pieces frae Flanders.”--With that he placed his movable warehouse on the table, and began to unlock it.
”Dance!” repeated Mordaunt--”Dance on St. John's Even?--Were you desired to bid me to it, Bryce?”
”Na--but ye ken weel eneugh ye wad be welcome, bidden or no bidden. This captain--how ca' ye him?--is to be skudler, as they ca't--the first of the gang, like.”
”The devil take him!” said Mordaunt, in impatient surprise.
”A' in gude time,” replied the jagger; ”hurry no man's cattle--the devil will hae his due, I warrant ye, or it winna be for lack of seeking. But it's true I'm telling you, for a' ye stare like a wild-cat; and this same captain,--I watna his name,--bought ane of the very waistcoats that I am ganging to show ye--purple, wi' a gowd binding, and bonnily broidered; and I have a piece for you, the neighbour of it, wi' a green grund; and if ye mean to streek yoursell up beside him, ye maun e'en buy it, for it's gowd that glances in the la.s.ses' een now-a-days. See--look till't,” he added, displaying the pattern in various points of view; ”look till _it_ through the light, and till the light through _it_--_wi'_ the grain, and _against_ the grain--it shows ony gate--cam frae Antwerp a' the gate--four dollars is the price; and yon captain was sae weel pleased that he flang down a twenty s.h.i.+lling Jacobus, and bade me keep the change and be d----d!--poor silly profane creature, I pity him.”
Without enquiring whether the pedlar bestowed his compa.s.sion on the worldly imprudence or the religious deficiencies of Captain Cleveland, Mordaunt turned from him, folded his arms, and paced the apartment, muttering to himself, ”Not asked--A stranger to be king of the feast!”--Words which he repeated so earnestly, that Bryce caught a part of their import.
”As for asking, I am almaist bauld to say, that ye will be asked, Maister Mordaunt.”
”Did they mention my name, then?” said Mordaunt.
”I canna preceesely say that,” said Bryce Snailsfoot;--”but ye needna turn away your head sae sourly, like a sealgh when he leaves the sh.o.r.e; for, do you see, I heard distinctly that a' the revellers about are to be there; and is't to be thought they would leave out you, an auld kend freend, and the lightest foot at sic frolics (Heaven send you a better praise in His ain gude time!) that ever flang at a fiddle-squeak, between this and Unst? Sae I consider ye altogether the same as invited--and ye had best provide yourself wi' a waistcoat, for brave and brisk will every man be that's there--the Lord pity them!”
He thus continued to follow with his green glazen eyes the motions of young Mordaunt Mertoun, who was pacing the room in a very pensive manner, which the jagger probably misinterpreted, as he thought, like Claudio, that if a man is sad, it must needs be because he lacks money.
Bryce, therefore, after another pause, thus accosted him. ”Ye needna be sad about the matter, Maister Mordaunt; for although I got the just price of the article from the captain-man, yet I maun deal freendly wi'
you, as a kend freend and customer, and bring the price, as they say, within your purse-mouth--or it's the same to me to let it lie ower till Martinmas, or e'en to Candlemas. I am decent in the warld, Maister Mordaunt--forbid that I should hurry ony body, far mair a freend that has paid me siller afore now. Or I wad be content to swap the garment for the value in feathers or sea-otters' skins, or ony kind of peltrie--nane kens better than yoursell how to come by sic ware--and I am sure I hae furnished you wi' the primest o' powder. I dinna ken if I tell'd ye it was out o' the kist of Captain Plunket, that perished on the Scaw of Unst, wi' the armed brig Mary, sax years syne. He was a prime fowler himself, and luck it was that the kist came ash.o.r.e dry. I sell that to nane but gude marksmen. And so, I was saying, if ye had ony wares ye liked to coup[35] for the waistcoat, I wad be ready to trock wi' you, for a.s.suredly ye will be wanted at Burgh-Westra, on Saint John's Even; and ye wadna like to look waur than the Captain--that wadna be setting.”
”I will be there at least, whether wanted or not,” said Mordaunt, stopping short in his walk, and taking the waistcoat-piece hastily out of the pedlar's hand; ”and, as you say, will not disgrace them.”
”Haud a care--haud a care, Maister Mordaunt,” exclaimed the pedlar; ”ye handle it as it were a bale of coa.r.s.e wadmaal--ye'll fray't to bits--ye might weel say my ware is tender--and ye'll mind the price is four dollars--Sall I put ye in my book for it?”
”No,” said Mordaunt, hastily; and, taking out his purse, he flung down the money.
”Grace to ye to wear the garment,” said the joyous pedlar, ”and to me to guide the siller; and protect us from earthly vanities, and earthly covetousness; and send you the white linen raiment, whilk is mair to be desired than the muslins, and cambrics, and lawns, and silks of this world; and send me the talents which avail more than much fine Spanish gold, or Dutch dollars either--and--but G.o.d guide the callant, what for is he wrapping the silk up that gate, like a wisp of hay?”
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