A Daughter of Fife

"It's a credit to you, Mistress Caird, to hae feelings like them, and

you'll be supported dootless."

Jean Futtrit's pretty Baubie had not always behaved well; and Jean was

suspicious of all other young girls. She had thought the worst of Maggie

at once, and she made Janet Caird feel herself to be a very meritorious

domestic martyr in accepting the charge of her. This idea satisfied

Janet's craving for praise and sympathy; she fully endorsed it; she began

to take credit for her prudence and propriety before she even entered upon

her new life.

And circumstances in Pittenloch favored Janet; in a few days she had

received so much condolence, and had committed herself so completely

regarding her niece, that nothing could have induced her to reconsider her

conduct. Every trifle also in Maggie's attitude testified against herself.

She resented the constant conclaves of tea-drinking, gossiping women in

her house, and she was too honest-hearted to hide her disapproval from

them. The result was, that backed by Janet Caird, they came still more

frequently, and were more and more offensive. If she determined to make

the best of the matter, and remained with them, she was subjected to

advices, and innuendoes, and rude jokes, almost intolerable; and if she

went away she was accused of bad temper, of a greedy, grudging

disposition, and of contempt for her own people and class.

If Maggie had been wise enough to attend faithfully the weekly meeting in

Elder Mackelvine's cottage, she would have silenced many of her enemies.

But this one evening Maggie looked forward to, on different grounds;

Janet Caird never missed the meeting, and her absence gave Maggie two

sweet hours alone in her home. She locked her door, visited Allan's room,

changed her book, and afterward sat still, and let the time slip away in

thoughts sacred to her own heart.

As the end of the year approached Dr. Balmuto was expected. He made a

visit to Pittenloch every three months. Then he consoled the sick,

baptized weakly infants, reproved those who had been negligent in

attending kirk, and catechised and examined the young people previous to

their admission to The Tables. Maggie had not been very faithful about

the ordinances. The weather had been bad, the landward road was dangerous

when snow had fallen, and she did not like going in the boats among so

many who gave her only looks of grave disapproval. So she had made many

excuses, and in this matter Janet Caird had let her take her own way

without opposition. Absence from kirk was a proof of a falling away from

grace, which in the eyes of these people was beyond explanation; provided

the delinquent was not unmistakably sick.