The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825Sellar, Gordon
History
The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825
Sellar, Gordon
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Sellar, Gordon
Coming to a
house by the side of the road I went to the open door and asked for a
cake. I have nothing for beggars, cried a woman by the fire. I am no
beggar, I answered, I will pay you, and held out a halfpenny. She stared
at me. Take these stoups and fill them at the well. The hill was steep
and the stoups heavy, but I managed to carry them back one at a time and
placed them on the bench. She handed me a farl of oatcake and I went
away. It was the sweetest bite I ever got. It was not nearly dark when I
climbed a dyke to get into a sheltered nook and fell asleep. Something
soft and warm licking my face woke me. It was a dog and it was broad
day. What are you doing here, laddie? said the dog's master who was a
young fellow, perhaps six or seven years older than myself. His staff
and the collie showed me he was a shepherd. I told him who I was and
where I was trying to go. Collie again smelt at me and wagged his tail
as if telling his master I was all right. I went with the lad who said
his name was Archie. He led to where his sheep were and we sat down in
the sunshine, for it was another warm day. We talked and we were not ten
minutes together when we liked each other. He unwrapped from a cloth
some bannocks and something like dried meat, which he said was braxie.
It was his noon-bite, but he told me to eat it for he said, we go back
to the shelter to-day, and by we he meant collie. He had been lonesome
and was glad of company and we chattered on by the hour. At noon,
leaving collie in charge of the sheep, we went to the hut where he
stayed and had something to eat. He said his father was shepherd to a
big farmer, who had sent him with two score of shearling ewes to get
highland pasture. We talked about everything we knew and tried to make
each other laugh. He told me about Wallace, and we gripped hands on
saying we would fight for Scotland like him, and I told him about
Glasgow, where he had not been. A boy came with a little basket and a
message. The message was from his father, that he was to bring the sheep
back early on Monday, and the basket was from his mother with food and a
clean shirt for the Sabbath. We slept on a sheepskin and wakened to hear
the patter of rain. After seeing his sheep and counting them, Archie
said we must keep the Sabbath, and when we had settled in a dry corner
of the hillside he heard me my questions. I could not go further than
Who is the Redeemer of God's elect? but he could go to the end. Then I
repeated the three paraphrases my mother had taught me, but Archie had
nearly all of them and several psalms. A shepherd would be tired if he
did not learn by heart, he said; some knit but I like reading best. Then
he took my mother's bible and read about David and Goliath. That over he
started to sing. Oh we had a fine time, and when a shower came Archie
spread his plaid like a tent over the bushes and we sat under it. He
told me what he meant to do when he was a man. He was going to Canada
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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