Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-02-18

ONE MORE CHANCE.

Rab Christison had been ailing for some
time. He said it was nothing very much.
Only something that shortened his walks.
That kept him awake till midnight, and
awakened him at dawn. That made him
think there must be something terribly
amiss with London meat and London
bread, since he found no appetite for either
But surely all this was nothing very seri-
GUS.
His conscience even misgave him that
he should use such an excuse to ask for an
untimely holiday in the spring that he
might 90 down to his old home at Clachan
on the Forth They were all glad to see
him there no visit Of his would ever be
un.imely to his old father and mother and
two maidenly sisters. They would have
liked to put him in the "spare room, that
was carpeted all over, and had white hang
ings. But Rab would have the little room
in the roof where he slept when he was
boy, with its window turned to the sky,
where, if you climbed up. you could catch
a glimpse of the blue hills far away. The
deep sleep of his boyhood seemed to re-
turn to the low mattrassed couch, at least
Rab said that he rose as refreshed as when
he was fifteen.
He found some appetite for the fresh
milk and new-laid eggs which they set be-
fore him, and they told the neighbors with
wistful pride that Rab ate whole reaper's
.'bap" on the very first morning OF his re-
turn. And truly he seemed to drink IN
health from the sea-breezes that blew up
the single shore. 1t was too singly shore
for any one to walk much there. But Rab
found out sheltered covers, and sat in them
tor hours together. Sometimes his COM
panion was sister Flora, and sometimes
sister Christian, but Jessie Mactarlane,
daughter of the farmer at East Clachan.
was thefriend of both and came with either
She was the only girl in the house at East
Clachan, and the good Christison women
were fond of her, and never left her lone
". She was but twenty, and they were
both nigh forty, but they all loved each
other, and cared for the same things
their respective households, the sermons
at kirk, their thrifty handiworks, and the
running story in the magazine, and were
not without an appreciation Of far wider
interests much more keen than that of
many who weuld scorn the humble mo-
notony of their outward lives. They had
stayed at home, but their hearts had tray
eled far. In the girls eyes, those two
kOOu plain opiulstCLS WClC s8SiVo bhu = "
rified and by the romance that was
not vet audible in her own life. Christian
Christison had been promised" to the
young mate Of a whaling-vessel that near
" fifteen years before had sailed from
Clachan on the Forth, and had never
sailed home again. Flora was engaged
to one who went to seek his fortune in In
dia, and was still successfully seeking it
there.
Flora was the graver of the two sisters,
and was sometimes little sore and hasty
in temper. But with neither had their
love affair made any parenthesis in life.
They kept their fathers ledgers. and
served behind his counter, and went out to
tea among their own little set in a sub
stantial, cheerful way. But Jessie under
stood where Christians thoughts went,
when she dropped her knitting and gazed
at the sun sinking over the sea. till the
grey clouds closed above him, and only a
streak of glory fingered on the wave. And
Jessie respected Flera's quaint and con-
slant knowledge of Hindoo words and Gus
toms. She never said word on the SUBJ
ject to either of them, nor they to her.
They did not know she knew, and she
felt that they would prefer it to be so. Let
us take our friends sweet flowers of wis
dom and patience and poetry without
grubbing up the black anguish which lay
at the roots and ripened them.
Rab Christison was twelve or fourteen
years younger than his sisters, and he had
known Jessie, coming in and out of his
mothers little parlor, ever since she had
been baby. While they were still chill
dren he had said that he would marry no.
body but Jessie. "Ah, he has forgotten
that now ~ thought Jessie, sitting beside
his sisters on the shingles. 81 wonder If
she remembers that P" asked Rab Christi
son, starting up. and taking hasty turn
among the rocks.
These were sober, quiet people. who
pondered many things. They had been
taught in childhood, not to think they had
a right to snatch whatever they wanted,
but rather to pause and consider every
body's welfare and wishes before their
own.
And so Rab Christison said no word of
love to Jessie Mcfarland, the one love of
his strong patient heart. He had no pros
poets but what were in himself The re.
spectacle shop on Clachan Market had
made no money, and it would be the nat
ural and lawful inheritance of the sisters
who served it and knew all about it. They
would live and die here. for nobody ex-
pected that Flora would ever 60 away
now. Jessie would have no dover. Her
fathers farm was poor and small, and
there were many boys on the farm of
Easter Clachan who must, somehow, be
creditably started in life.
Rab did not think it hard matter. 1t
was all of course with him, "the steep
bre" which ''the stout heart" does not
even notice. Nor did he dream that Jes-
sic loved him, though he had happy in
stinct that she was TO be won. He knew
she liked him, that she was glad when he
came, and sorry when he went away.
And he was right. But Jessie was not the
girl to make all her friends miserable by
tricks Of sentiment and passion. Jessie
Mcfarland had never yet let her own
heart say to itself that the browning bliss
of her life would be to become Rab Chris
tison's wife. She had that pure woman's
uprightness which feels that to throw an
unsonght love at man s feet is to degrade
herself and to wrong him bitterly. Jessie
was one of those who can in patience pos
sess their souls. in q sense that is almost