Part 8 (1/2)

But Uncle Matthew would not let her finish her sentence. ”And why shouldn't he write books if he has a mind to it?” he demanded. ”Wasn't he always the wee lad for scribbling bits of stories in penny exercise books?...”

”He was ... 'til I beat him for it,” she replied. ”Why can't you settle down here in the shop with your Uncle William?” she said to her son.

”It's a comfortable, quiet sort of a life, and it's sure and steady, and when we're all gone, it'll be yours for yourself. Won't it, William?”

”Oh, aye!” said Uncle William. ”Everything we have'll be John's right enough, but I doubt he's not fond of the shop!...”

”What's wrong with the shop? It's as good as any in the town!” She coaxed John with her voice. ”You can marry some nice, respectable girl and bring her here,” she said, ”and I'll gladly give place to her when she comes!” She rocked herself gently to and fro in the rocking-chair.

”I'd like well to have the nursing of your children in the house that you yourself were born in!...”

”Och, ma, I'm not in the way of marrying!...”

”You'll marry some time, won't you? And there's plenty would be glad to have you. Aggie Logan, though I can't bear the sight of her, would give the two eyes out of her head for you. Of course you'll marry, and I'd be thankful glad to think of your son being born in this house. You were born in it, and your da, too, and his da, and his da's da. Four generations of you in one house to be pleased and proud of, and I pray to G.o.d he'll let me live to see the fifth generation of the MacDermotts born here, too. I'm a great woman for clinging to my home, and I love to think of the generations coming one after the other in the same house that the family's always lived in. How many people in this town can say they've always lived in the one house like the MacDermotts?”

”Not very many,” Uncle William proudly replied.

”No, indeed there's not, I tell you, John, son, the MacDermotts are someone in this town, as grand in their way and as proud as Lord Castlederry himself. That's something to live up to, isn't it! The good name of your family! But if you go tramping the world for adventures and romances, the way your Uncle Matthew would have you do, you'll lose it all, and there'll be strangers in the house that your family's lived in all these generations. And mebbe you'll come here, when you're an oul' man and we're all dead and buried, and no one in the place'll have any mind of you at all, and you'll be lonelier here nor anywhere else.

Oh, it would be terrible to be treated like a stranger in your own town! And if you did start a bookshop and it failed on you, and you lost all your money, wouldn't it be worse disgrace than any not to be able to pay your debts in a place where everyone knows you ... to be made a bankrupt mebbe?”

”Ah, but, ma, the world would never move at all if everybody stopped in the one place!” John said.

”The world'll move well enough,” she answered. ”G.o.d moves it, not you.”

John got up from the table and went, and sat on a low stool by the fire. ”I don't know so much,” he said. ”I read in a book one time!...”

”In a book!” Mrs. MacDermott sneered.

”Aye, ma, in a book!” John stoutly answered. ”After all, you know the Bible's a book!” Mrs. MacDermott had not got a retort to that statement, and John, aware that he had scored a point, hurriedly proceeded, ”I was reading one time that all the work in the world was started by men that wrote books. There never was any change or progress 'til someone started to think and write!...”

Mrs. MacDermott recovered her wits. ”Were they happy and contented men?” she demanded.

”I don't know, ma,” John replied. ”The book didn't say that. I suppose not, or they wouldn't have wanted to make any alterations!”

”Let them that wants to make changes, make them,” said Mrs. MacDermott.

”There's no need for you to go about altering the world when you can stay at home here happy and content!”

Uncle Matthew rose from the table and came towards Mrs. MacDermott.

”What does it matter whether you're happy and contented or not, so long as things are happening to you?” he exclaimed.

Mrs. MacDermott burst into bitter laughter. ”You have little wit,” she said, ”to be talking that daft way. Eh, William?” she added, turning to her other brother-in-law. ”What do you think about it?”

Uncle William had lit his pipe, and was sitting in a listening att.i.tude, slowly puffing smoke. ”I'm wondering,” he said, ”whether it's more fun to be writing about things nor it is to be doing things!”

John turned to him and tapped him on the knee. ”I've thought of that, Uncle William,” he said, ”and I tell you what! I'll go and do something, and then I'll write a book about it!”

”What'll you do?” Mrs. MacDermott asked.

”Something,” said John. ”I can easily do _some_thing!”