On Friday, Miss Mally Glencairn received a brief note from Mrs.Pringle, informing her, that she and the Doctor would reach the manse, "God willing," in time for tea on Saturday; and begging her, therefore, to go over from Irvine, and see that the house was in order for their reception.This note was written from Glasgow, where they had arrived, in their own carriage, from Carlisle on the preceding day, after encountering, as Mrs.Pringle said, "more hardships and extorshoning than all the dangers of the sea which they met with in the smack of Leith that took them to London."As soon as Miss Mally received this intelligence, she went to Miss Isabella Tod, and requested her company for the next day to Garnock, where they arrived betimes to dine with Mr.Snodgrass.Mrs.Glibbans and her daughter Becky were then on a consolatory visit to Mr.Craig.We mentioned in the last chapter, that the crying of Mrs.Craig had come on; and that Mrs.Glibbans, according to promise, and with the most anxious solicitude, had gone to wait the upshot.The upshot was most melancholy,--Mrs.Craig was soon no more;--she was taken, as Mrs.Glibbans observed on the occasion, from the earthly arms of her husband, to the spiritual bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which was far better.But the baby survived; so that, what with getting a nurse, and the burial, and all the work and handling that a birth and death in one house at the same time causes, Mr.Craig declared, that he could not do without Mrs.Glibbans; and she, with all that Christianity by which she was so zealously distinguished, sent for Miss Becky, and took up her abode with him till it would please Him, without whom there is no comfort, to wipe the eyes of the pious elder.In a word, she staid so long, that a rumour began to spread that Mr.Craig would need a wife to look after his bairn; and that Mrs.Glibbans was destined to supply the desideratum.
Mr.Snodgrass, after enjoying his dinner society with Miss Mally and Miss Isabella, thought it necessary to dispatch a courier, in the shape of a barefooted servant lass, to Mr.Micklewham, to inform the elders that the Doctor was expected home in time for tea, leaving it to their discretioneither to greet his safe return at the manse, or in any other form or manner that would be most agreeable to themselves.These important news were soon diffused through the clachan.Mr.Micklewham dismissed his school an hour before the wonted time, and there was a universal interest and curiosity excited, to see the Doctor coming home in his own coach.All the boys of Garnock assembled at the braehead which commands an extensive view of the Kilmarnock road, the only one from Glasgow that runs through the parish; the wives with their sucklings were seated on the large stones at their respective door-cheeks; while their cats were calmly reclining on the window soles.The lassie weans, like clustering bees, were mounted on the carts that stood before Thomas Birlpenny the vintner's door, churming with anticipated delight; the old men took their stations on the dike that incloses the side of the vintner's kail-yard, and "a batch of wabster lads," with green aprons and thin yellow faces, planted themselves at the gable of the malt kiln, where they were wont, when trade was better, to play at the hand-ball; but, poor fellows, since the trade fell off, they have had no heart for the game, and the vintner's half-mutchkin stoups glitter in empty splendour unrequired on the shelf below the brazen sconce above the bracepiece, amidst the idle pewter pepper-boxes, the bright copper tea-kettle, the coffee-pot that has never been in use, and lids of saucepans that have survived their principals,--the wonted ornaments of every trig change-house kitchen.
The season was far advanced; but the sun shone at his setting with a glorious composure, and the birds in the hedges and on the boughs were again gladdened into song.The leaves had fallen thickly, and the stubble-fields were bare, but Autumn, in a many-coloured tartan plaid, was seen still walking with matronly composure in the woodlands, along the brow of the neighbouring hills.
About half-past four o'clock, a movement was seen among the callans at the braehead, and a shout announced that a carriage was in sight.It was answered by a murmuring response of satisfaction from the whole village.In the course of a few minutes the carriage reached the turnpike--it was of the darkest green and the gravest fashion,-- a large trunk, covered with Russian matting, and fastened on with cords, prevented from chafing it byknots of straw rope, occupied the front,--behind, other two were fixed in the same manner, the lesser of course uppermost; and deep beyond a pile of light bundles and bandboxes, that occupied a large portion of the interior, the blithe faces of the Doctor and Mrs.Pringle were discovered.The boys huzzaed, the Doctor flung them penny-pieces, and the mistress baubees.
As the carriage drove along, the old men on the dike stood up and reverently took off their hats and bonnets.The weaver lads gazed with a melancholy smile; the lassies on the carts clapped their hands with joy; the women on both sides of the street acknowledged the recognising nods; while all the village dogs, surprised by the sound of chariot wheels, came baying and barking forth, and sent off the cats that were so doucely sitting on the window soles, clambering and scampering over the roofs in terror of their lives.
When the carriage reached the manse door, Mr.Snodgrass, the two ladies, with Mr.Micklewham, and all the elders except Mr.Craig, were there ready to receive the travellers.But over this joy of welcoming we must draw a veil; for the first thing that the Doctor did, on entering the parlour and before sitting down, was to return thanks for his safe restoration to his home and people.
