Part 24 (2/2)
”In what way, then, ma'am?”
Really Miss Ailie could not say. There was something wonderful about Tommy, you felt it, but you could not quite give it a name. The warper must have noticed it himself.
”I've heard him saying something o' the kind to Elspeth,” was Aaron's reply.
”But sometimes he is like a boy inspired,” said the school-mistress.
”You must have seen that?”
”When he was thinking o' himsel',” answered Aaron.
”He has such n.o.ble sentiments.”
”He has.”
”And I think, I really think,” said Miss Ailie, eagerly, for this was what she had come to say, ”that he has got great gifts for the ministry.”
”I'm near sure o't,” said Aaron, grimly.
”Ah, I see you don't like him.”
”I dinna,” the warper acknowledged quietly, ”but I've been trying to do my duty by him for all that. It's no every laddie that gets three years'
schooling straight on end.”
This was true, but Miss Ailie used it to press her point. ”You have done so well by him,” she said, ”that I think you should keep him at school for another year or two, and so give him a chance of carrying a bursary.
If he carries one it will support him at college; if he does not--well, then I suppose he must be apprenticed to some trade.”
”No,” Aaron said, decisively; ”if he gets the chance of a college education and flings it awa', I'll waste no more siller on his keep.
I'll send him straight to the herding.”
”And I shall not blame you,” Miss Ailie declared eagerly.
”Though I would a hantle rather,” continued the warper, ”waur my money on Elspeth.”
”What you spend on him,” Miss Ailie argued, ”you will really be spending on her, for if he rises in the world he will not leave Elspeth behind.
You are prejudiced against him, but you cannot deny that.”
”I dinna deny but what he's fond o' her,” said Aaron, and after considering the matter for some days he decided that Tommy should get his chance. The school-mistress had not acted selfishly, for this decision, as she knew, meant that the boy must now be placed in the hands of Mr. Cathro, who was a Greek and Latin scholar. She taught Latin herself, it is true, but as cautiously as she crossed a plank bridge, and she was never comfortable in the dominie's company, because even at a tea-table he would refer familiarly to the ablative absolute instead of letting sleeping dogs lie.
”But Elspeth couldna be happy if we were at different schools,” Tommy objected instantly.
”Yes, I could,” said Elspeth, who had been won over by Miss Ailie; ”it will be so fine, Tommy, to see you again after I hinna seen you for three hours.”
Tommy was little known to Mr. Cathro at this time, except as the boy who had got the better of a rival teacher in the affair of Corp, which had delighted him greatly. ”But if the sacket thinks he can play any of his tricks on me,” he told Aaron, ”there is an awakening before him,” and he began the cramming of Tommy for a bursary with perfect confidence.
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