Complete Works. Anna Buchan

       O, the land is fine, fine,

       I could buy it a' for mine,

       For ma gowd's as the stooks in Strathairlie;

       But I fain the lad would be

       Wha sailed ower the saut sea

       When the dawn rose grey on Strathairlie."

      Jean rose from the piano. Jock had got out his books and had begun his lessons. Mhor and Peter were under the table playing at being cave-men. Pamela was stitching at her embroidery. Peter Reid sat shading his eyes from the light with his hand.

      Jean knelt down on the rug and held out her hands to the blazing fire.

      "It must be sad to be old and rich," she said softly, almost as if she were speaking to herself. "It is so very certain that we can carry nothing out of this world…. I read somewhere of a man who, on every birthday, gave away some of his possessions so that at the end he might not be cumbered and weighted with them." She looked up and caught the gaze of Peter Reid fixed on her intently. "It's rather a nice idea, don't you think, to give away all the superfluous money and lands, pictures and jewels, everything we have, and stand stripped, as it were, ready when we get the word to come, to leap into the beyond?"

      Pamela spoke first. "There speaks sweet and twenty," she said.

      "Yes," said Jean. "I know it's quite easy for me to speak in that lordly way of disposing of possessions, for I haven't got any to dispose of."

      "Then," said Pamela, "we are to take it that you are ready to spring across any minute?"

      "So far as goods and gear go; but I'm rich in other things. I'm pretty heavily weighted by David, and Jock, and Mhor."

      Then Peter Reid spoke, still with his hand over his eyes.

      "Once you begin to make money it clings. How can you get rid of it?"

      "I'm saving up for a bicycle," the Mhor broke in, becoming aware that the conversation turned on money. "I've got half a crown and a thru-penny-bit and fourpence-ha'penny in pennies: and I've got a duster to clean it with when I've got it."

      Jean stroked his head. "I don't think you'll ever be overburdened with riches, Mhor, old man. But it must be tremendous fun to be rich. I love books where suddenly a lawyer's letter comes saying that someone has left them a fortune."

      "What would you do with a fortune if you got it?" Peter Reid asked.

      "Need you ask?" laughed Pamela. "Miss Jean would at once make it over to David and Jock and Mhor."

      "Oh, well," said Jean, "of course they would come first, but, oh, I would do such a lot of things! I'd find out where money was most needed and drop it on the people anonymously so that they wouldn't be bothered about thanking anyone. I would creep about like a beneficent Puck and take worried frowns away, and straighten out things for tired people, and, above all, I'd make children smile. There's no fun or satisfaction got from giving big sums to hospitals and things—that's all right for when you're dead. I want to make happiness while I'm alive. I don't think a million pounds would be too much for all I want to do."

      "Aw, Jean," said Mhor, "if you had a million pounds would you buy me a bicycle?"

      "A bicycle," said Jean, "and a motor and an aeroplane and a Shetland pony and a Newfoundland pup. I'll make a story for you in bed to-night all about what you would have if I were rich."

      "And Jock, too?"

      Being assured that Jock would not be overlooked Mhor grabbed Peter round the neck and proceeded to babble to him about bicycles and aeroplanes, motors and Newfoundland pups.

      Jean looked apologetically at her guests.

      "When you're poor you've got to dream," she said. "Oh, must you go, Mr. Reid? But you'll come back to-morrow, won't you? We would honestly like you to come and stay with us."

      "Thank you," said Peter Reid, "but I am going back to London in a day or two. I am obliged to you for your hospitality, especially for singing me 'Strathairlie.' I never thought to hear it again. I wonder if I might trouble you to write me out the words."

      "But take the book," said Jean, running to get it and pressing it into his hands. "Perhaps you'll find other songs in it you used to know and like. Take it to keep."

      Pamela dropped her embroidery-frame and watched the scene.

      Mhor and Peter stood looking on. Jock lifted his head from his books to listen. It was no new thing for the boys to see Jean give away her most treasured possessions: she was a born "Madam Liberality."

      "But," Peter Reid objected, "it is rather a rare book. You value it yourself."

      "Of course I do," said Jean, "and that is why I am giving it to you. I know you will appreciate it."

      Peter Reid took the book as if it was something fragile and very precious. Pamela was puzzled by the expression on his face. He did not seem so much touched by the gift as amused—sardonically amused.

      "Thank you," he said. And again, "Thank you!"

      "Jock will go down with you to the hotel," Jean said, explaining, when the visitor demurred, that the road was steep and not very well lighted.

      "I'll go too," said Mhor, "me and Peter."

      "Well, come straight back. Good-bye, Mr. Reid. I'm so glad you came to see The Rigs, but I wish you could have stayed…."

      "Is he an old friend?" Pamela asked, when the cavalcade had departed.

      "I never saw him before to-day. He once lived in this house and he came back to see it, and he looks ill and I think he is poor, so I asked him to come and stay with us for a week."

      "My dear child, do you invite every stranger to stay with you if you think he is poor?"