Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 07
General
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 07
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Fiction
"Weel, he was buried, an' there was a grand character o' him putten in
the newspapers, an' we a' thocht we were to hear nae mair aboot him. My
mither got a wee bittie o' a house on the farm o' a neebor, an' there we
lived dowie aneugh; but she was aye an eident, working woman, an' she
now span late an' early for some o' her auld freends, the farmers'
wives; an' her sair-won penny, wi' what we got frae kindly folk wha
minded us in better times, kept us a' alive. Meanwhile, strange stories
o' the dead factor began to gang aboot the kintra. First, his servants,
it was said, were hearing aye curious noises in his counting office. The
door was baith locked an' sealed, waiting till his freends would cast
up, for there were some doots aboot them; but, locked an' sealed as it
was, they could hear it opening an' shutting every nicht, an' hear a
rustling among the papers, as gin there had been half-a-dozen writers
scribbling among them at ance. An' then, Gude preserve us a'! they could
hear Keilly himself, as if he were dictating to his clerk. An', last o'
a', they could see him in the gloamin, nicht an' mornin, ganging aboot
his hoose, wringing his hands, an' aye, aye muttering to himsel aboot
roups and poindings. The servant-girls left the place to himsel; an' the
twa lads that wrought his farm, an' slept in a hay-loft, were sae
disturbed, nicht after nicht, that they had jist to leave it to himsel
too.
"My mither was ae nicht wi' some o' her spinnin at a neeborin
farmer's--a worthy, God-fearing man, an' an elder o' the kirk. It was in
the simmer time, an' the nicht was bricht and bonny; but, in her
backcoming, she had to pass the empty hoose o' the dead factor, an' the
elder said that he would tak a step hame wi' her, for fear she michtna
be that easy in her mind. An' the honest man did sae. Naething happened
them in the passing, except that a dun cow, ance a great favourite o' my
mither's, came up lowing to them, puir beast! as gin she wauld hae
better liked to be gaun hame wi' my mither than stay where she was. But
the elder didna get aff sae easy in the backcoming. He was passing
beside a thick hedge, when what does he see but a man inside the hedge,
taking step for step wi' him as he gaed! The man wore a dun coat, an'
had a huntin-whip under his arm, an' walked, as the elder thought, very
like what the dead factor used to do when he had gotten a glass or twa
aboon ordinar. Weel, they cam to a slap in the hedge, an' out cam the
man at the slap; an', Gude tak us a' in keeping! it was, sure aneugh,
the dead factor himsel! There were his hook nose, an' his rough, red
face--though it was, maybe, bluer noo than red; an' there were the boots
an' the dun coat he had worn at my mither's roup, an' the very whip he
had lashed a puir gangrel woman wi' no a week afore his death. He was
muttering something to himsel; but the elder could only hear a wordie
noo an' then. 'Poind and roup,' he would say, 'poind and roup;' an' then
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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