Part 1 (1/2)
Kenneth McAlpine.
by Gordon Stables.
CHAPTER ONE.
EARLY DAYS.
”Away, ye gay landscapes, ye garden of roses, And bring me the land where the dewdrop reposes.”
Byron.
”Poor woolly mother, be at peace!
Whither thou goest I will bear thy care.”
M. Arnold.
Scene: A Highland mountain, clad almost to the summit in purple heather.
On the right a ravine, half hidden by drooping birch trees. On the left a pine forest. Sheep grazing in the foreground. Smoke upcurling from a humble cottage in the distance. A shepherd-boy talking to his dog; between them a lamb is lying on the ground.
”It is dead, Kooran, dead, dead, dead. It is as dead as ever a lamb was, Kooran. Ay, my doggie, I ken you're sorrowful and anxious, but you may stand there and lick its little face and legs, till this time the morn, Kooran, but you can never bring back life to it again.
”What do you say, Kooran? Its eyes are still bright and s.h.i.+nin' and life-like? True; but wait a wee, Kooran. Yes, wait a wee, dear frien'.
In less than an hour, Kooran, its poor eyes will be gla.s.sy enough, and its bits o' legs as cold and stiff as the crook I'm holding in my hand.
”Let us hide it awa' in under this bush o' whins,--out o' sight of the poor woeful mother of it. I canna bear to bury it just yet, while the heart is still warm, but by-and-bye, Kooran; by-and-bye, doggie.
”Yonder comes the mother, Kooran. She has left the flock again.”
The sheep bleats.
”Listen, Kooran, listen. What a mournfu' bleat! It makes my blood creep. And look at her eyes, Kooran. They seem starting out o' the sockets wi' excitement. Drive her back, Kooran, but _walk_, doggie; dinna run. Drive her ever so gently. She'll never have her lammie to trot at her heels again. Gently, Kooran, gently.
”And now, Kooran, off you trot home for the barley scones and the flagon o' milk. I'll have the lammie buried before you come back, so the sight of that will trouble you no more. Then we'll have dinner, doggie, and it is time, too. Look at the sun where it is, right over the highest peak of Ben Varra. Off you trot, Kooran, and dinna let the gra.s.s grow under your feet till you're back again.
”Heigho! another lammie dead!” The boy was alone now; the faithful dog had departed at once on his mission. In a bee-line down the mountain's side went he, feathering along through the gra.s.s and the patches of blooming heather, jumping over boulders, and springing down from rocky ledges with a daring that would a.s.suredly have proved fatal to any other kind of dog, save a Highland collie or a Scottish deerhound. Finally he went splas.h.i.+ng through a broad though shallow river, and immediately after disappeared in a clump of those sweet-scented birch trees that grow so plentifully in ”the land of the mountain and flood.”
”Heigho! another lammie dead!”
The boy had gone farther up the hill, and as he spoke he threw himself down on top of a couch made of heather, dislodging as he did so several mossy bees that had come to suck the honey from the little purple bells.
Quite a work of art was this couch. It had taken the boy all the livelong morning and forenoon to make it, Kooran meanwhile trotting about after him or standing by his side, with one ear p.r.i.c.ked up, the other down, very much interested indeed in the progress of the work, and apparently sorry that he was only a dog and could not lend a hand.
Wouldst know how this couch was built? First and foremost, then, the lad had sought out a proper site, flat and smooth, on which to make it.
This was chosen close to a steep-rising rock far up the mountain's side, and whence he could see not only all the country far and wide, but the grazing ground of his flock of sheep some distance down beneath him.
Under the rock, but fully exposed to the rays of the summer sun, for Kenneth was not a bit afraid of spoiling his complexion. Indeed, such an accident would have been impossible, for neither his face nor his knees--he wore the Highland garb--could have been one whit browner than they were. And as for the sun giving him a headache, that was out of the question--the sun's rays had not the power. For when taking a _siesta_, as shepherd lads are wont to do sometimes, his favourite att.i.tude was lying on his back with one arm under his head and his face upturned to the G.o.d of day, for he feared the sun no more than does yonder eagle that goes circling up and up towards it, even as moths, on a summer's evening, go wheeling round and round the lamp flame.
A black, bare, bleak-looking rock it was, but canopied over with the greenest of green moss and trailing saxifrages, bearing tiny flowerets of pink and white and blue.