Part 47 (1/2)
The pharmacy of the islands was in vain resorted to by Minna's anxious father. Sages of both s.e.xes, who knew the virtues of every herb which drinks the dew, and augmented those virtues by words of might, used while they prepared and applied the medicines, were attended with no benefit; and Magnus, in the utmost anxiety, was at last induced to have recourse to the advice of his kinswoman, Norna of the Fitful-head, although, owing to circ.u.mstances noticed in the course of the story, there was at this time some estrangement between them. His first application was in vain. Norna was then at her usual place of residence, upon the sea-coast, near the headland from which she usually took her designation; but, although Eric Scambester himself brought the message, she refused positively to see him, or to return any answer.
Magnus was angry at the slight put upon his messenger and message, but his anxiety on Minna's account, as well as the respect which he had for Norna's real misfortunes and imputed wisdom and power, prevented him from indulging, on the present occasion, his usual irritability of disposition. On the contrary, he determined to make an application to his kinswoman in his own person. He kept his purpose, however, to himself, and only desired his daughters to be in readiness to attend him upon a visit to a relation whom he had not seen for some time, and directed them, at the same time, to carry some provisions along with them, as the journey was distant, and they might perhaps find their friend unprovided.
Unaccustomed to ask explanations of his pleasure, and hoping that exercise and the amus.e.m.e.nt of such an excursion might be of service to her sister, Brenda, upon whom all household and family charges now devolved, caused the necessary preparations to be made for the expedition; and, on the next morning, they were engaged in tracing the long and tedious course of beach and of moorland, which, only varied by occasional patches of oats and barley, where a little ground had been selected for cultivation, divided Burgh-Westra from the north-western extremity of the Mainland, (as the princ.i.p.al island is called,) which terminates in the cape called Fitful-head, as the south-western point ends in the cape of Sumburgh.
On they went, through wild and over wold, the Udaller bestriding a strong, square-made, well-barrelled palfrey, of Norwegian breed, somewhat taller, and yet as stout, as the ordinary ponies of the country; while Minna and Brenda, famed, amongst other accomplishments, for their horsemans.h.i.+p, rode two of those hardy animals, which, bred and reared with more pains than is usually bestowed, showed, both by the neatness of their form and their activity, that the race, so much and so carelessly neglected, is capable of being improved into beauty without losing any thing of its spirit or vigour. They were attended by two servants on horseback, and two on foot, secure that the last circ.u.mstance would be no delay to their journey, because a great part of the way was so rugged, or so marshy, that the horses could only move at a foot pace; and that, whenever they met with any considerable tract of hard and even ground, they had only to borrow from the nearest herd of ponies the use of a couple for the accommodation of these pedestrians.
The journey was a melancholy one, and little conversation pa.s.sed, except when the Udaller, pressed by impatience and vexation, urged his pony to a quick pace, and again, recollecting Minna's weak state of health, slackened to a walk, and reiterated enquiries how she felt herself, and whether the fatigue was not too much for her. At noon the party halted, and partook of some refreshment, for which they had made ample provision, beside a pleasant spring, the pureness of whose waters, however, did not suit the Udaller's palate, until qualified by a liberal addition of right Nantz. After he had a second, yea and a third time, filled a large silver travelling-cup, embossed with a German Cupid smoking a pipe, and a German Bacchus emptying his flask down the throat of a bear, he began to become more talkative than vexation had permitted him to be during the early part of their journey, and thus addressed his daughters:--
”Well, children, we are within a league or two of Norna's dwelling, and we shall soon see how the old spell-mutterer will receive us.”
Minna interrupted her father with a faint exclamation, while Brenda, surprised to a great degree, exclaimed, ”Is it then to Norna that we are to make this visit?--Heaven forbid!”
”And wherefore should Heaven forbid?” said the Udaller, knitting his brows; ”wherefore, I would gladly know, should Heaven forbid me to visit my kinswoman, whose skill may be of use to your sister, if any woman in Zetland, or man either, can be of service to her?--You are a fool, Brenda,--your sister has more sense.--Cheer up, Minna!--thou wert ever wont to like her songs and stories, and used to hang about her neck, when little Brenda cried and ran from her like a Spanish merchantman from a Dutch caper.”[15]
”I wish she may not frighten me as much to-day, father,” replied Brenda, desirous of indulging Minna in her taciturnity, and at the same time to amuse her father by sustaining the conversation; ”I have heard so much of her dwelling, that I am rather alarmed at the thought of going there uninvited.”
”Thou art a fool,” said Magnus, ”to think that a visit from her kinsfolks can ever come amiss to a kind, hearty, Hialtland heart, like my cousin Norna's.--And, now I think on't, I will be sworn that is the reason why she would not receive Eric Scambester!--It is many a long day since I have seen her chimney smoke, and I have never carried you thither--She hath indeed some right to call me unkind. But I will tell her the truth--and that is, that though such be the fas.h.i.+on, I do not think it is fair or honest to eat up the substance of lone women-folks, as we do that of our brother Udallers, when we roll about from house to house in the winter season, until we gather like a s...o...b..ll, and eat up all wherever we come.”
”There is no fear of our putting Norna to any distress just now,”
replied Brenda, ”for I have ample provision of every thing that we can possibly need--fish, and bacon, and salted mutton, and dried geese--more than we could eat in a week, besides enough of liquor for you, father.”
”Right, right, my girl!” said the Udaller; ”a well-found s.h.i.+p makes a merry voyage--so we shall only want the kindness of Norna's roof, and a little bedding for you; for, as to myself, my sea-cloak, and honest dry boards of Norway deal, suit me better than your eider-down cus.h.i.+ons and mattresses. So that Norna will have the pleasure of seeing us without having a stiver's worth of trouble.”
”I wish she may think it a pleasure, sir,” replied Brenda.
”Why, what does the girl mean, in the name of the Martyr?” replied Magnus Troil; ”dost thou think my kinswoman is a heathen, who will not rejoice to see her own flesh and blood?--I would I were as sure of a good year's fis.h.i.+ng!--No, no! I only fear we may find her from home at present, for she is often a wanderer, and all with thinking over much on what can never be helped.”
Minna sighed deeply as her father spoke, and the Udaller went on:--
”Dost thou sigh at that, my girl?--why, 'tis the fault of half the world--let it never be thine own, Minna.”
Another suppressed sigh intimated that the caution came too late.
”I believe you are afraid of my cousin as well as Brenda is,” said the Udaller, gazing on her pale countenance; ”if so, speak the word, and we will return back again as if we had the wind on our quarter, and were running fifteen knots by the line.”
”Do, for Heaven's sake, sister, let us return!” said Brenda, imploringly; ”you know--you remember--you must be well aware that Norna can do nought to help you.”
”It is but too true,” said Minna, in a subdued voice; ”but I know not--she may answer a question--a question that only the miserable dare ask of the miserable.”
”Nay, my kinswoman is no miser,” answered the Udaller, who only heard the beginning of the word; ”a good income she has, both in Orkney and here, and many a fair lispund of b.u.t.ter is paid to her. But the poor have the best share of it, and shame fall the Zetlander who begrudges them; the rest she spends, I wot not how, in her journeys through the islands. But you will laugh to see her house, and Nick Strumpfer, whom she calls Pacolet--many folks think Nick is the devil; but he is flesh and blood, like any of us--his father lived in Graemsay--I shall be glad to see Nick again.”
While the Udaller thus ran on, Brenda, who, in recompense for a less portion of imagination than her sister, was gifted with sound common sense, was debating with herself the probable effect of this visit on her sister's health. She came finally to the resolution of speaking with her father aside, upon the first occasion which their journey should afford. To him she determined to communicate the whole particulars of their nocturnal interview with Norna,--to which, among other agitating causes, she attributed the depression of Minna's spirits,--and then make himself the judge whether he ought to persist in his visit to a person so singular, and expose his daughter to all the shock which her nerves might possibly receive from the interview.
Just as she had arrived at this conclusion, her father, das.h.i.+ng the crumbs from his laced waistcoat with one hand, and receiving with the other a fourth cup of brandy and water, drank devoutly to the success of their voyage, and ordered all to be in readiness to set forward. Whilst they were saddling their ponies, Brenda, with some difficulty, contrived to make her father understand she wished to speak with him in private--no small surprise to the honest Udaller, who, though secret as the grave in the very few things where he considered secrecy as of importance, was so far from practising mystery in general, that his most important affairs were often discussed by him openly in presence of his whole family, servants included.
But far greater was his astonishment, when, remaining purposely with his daughter Brenda, a little in the wake, as he termed it, of the other riders, he heard the whole account of Norna's visit to Burgh-Westra, and of the communication with which she had then astounded his daughters.
For a long time he could utter nothing but interjections, and ended with a thousand curses on his kinswoman's folly in telling his daughters such a history of horror.