The record-union., 1893-05-06
4HE UNCANNY BARN.

tate In East Lothian which he farmed at
considerable profit. The land had
passed from father to son for couple of
hundred years. 1t had always yielded a
good livelihood to the owner, but never
had 1t been so highly cultivated or pro-
dueed such abundant crops as under
David Galbraith's liberal and skillful
management. The oats and potatoes
grown on his farm commanded the high
est prices in the market, and his root
crops were superior to any in the district.
The large. solidly built stone house in
which so many generations of Galbraiths
had lived and died stood in the midst of
the property, sheltered by belt of trees
on rising ground from the sweeping east
wind, and the laborers' cottages, equally
well constructed to resist the gales that
blew across the Firth of Forth, We're
models of decent comfort. The live
stock on the farm was well fed and cared
Tor, and the whole property bore evil
dence 10 the wealth, thrift and intelli-
gence of its owner.
And David Galbraith's wife was we'll
to-do and thrifty like himself. She, too,
was the child of Lowland landowner
and farmer, and had brought her hus-
band no inconsiderabIe tocher, while her
ments might in themselves have served
as marriage portion. She, too, like her
husband, came of a douce Presbyterian
stock, worthy, upright folk, holding by
the faith and practice of their forbears-
orthodox and thrifty, worshiping as their
fathers had done, and hauding the gear as
tightly, nothing doubling but that to them
was especially assigned not only the good
things of this world, but also OF that
which is to come.
Galbraith did not marry till he was a
mlddle-aged man, but he had long had the
cares of a family on his shoulders with
out Its pleasures to tighten the burden.
lie was the eldest of six orphan sisters
and brothers, to whom he had acted the
part of a father, and it was not till Colin
the last and youngest, had left Scot
land for sheep run in Australia, with
money lent him by his brother, that he
felt himself at liberty to marry. But
now that his pious duty towards his fam
lily was fulfilled, David Galbraith did not
hesitate to take to himself wife in the
person of Miss Alison McGilivray, a
lady of some five-and-thirty years of age
with large hands and feet, small gray
eyes, high cheek bones, and complexion
betokenlng exposure to- harsh climate
She was well educated and intelligent
and in talking with her servants and poor
neighbors, commonly fell into the COM
Portable Lowland Scotch that her father
and mother had taken pride in speak
ing.
only one child was born to David and
his wife in the ample home where there
was space, maintenance and welcome for
dozen. ct this one was son, and the
Galbraiths were not doomed to die out.
The boy was christened Alexander, after
his two grandtathers. both of whom
were AleXanders, so that there was no
Chance of dispute as to which side
OF the house should have the naming of
the child.
And a poor, wee, frail child he was,
apparently inheriting nothing of the
strength and vigor of the Galbraiths and
McGIiivrays, nor did he resemble father
or mother III feature. He seemed little
foreigner that had come to stay with them
for a while, and often i'll his feeble in
fancy he bade fair to depart and leave
his parents childless. The shrewd, brac-
ing winds, that were life and health to
them, nIpped and shriveled him. He
took every allment that was TO be
had, and when there was nothing CATCH
ing in the neighborhood he would origi-
nate some illness OF his own, severe
enough to have shaken the constitution
of any but a seasoned weakling like him
self. The Lowland farmer would hang
over the cradle of his waxen-faced baby,
holding mis- breath for very fear as ne
looked at the puny thing, and would say,
dropping into broad Scotch, as his wont
was when strongly moved, "Wha wad
ken this for a BARN o. mine, sac strang
and bonny and weel set up as the Gal
braithS have aye been r'
But the babe won through the troubles
and perils Of his sIckly infancy, and at 6
years OF age had grown into a delicate
slip of a child, with an interesting pair of
gray eyes in his pale face and bright
spark of Intellect in his big head. The
family doctor, TO whose unceasing care
a.at,
his mothers devoted nursing, forbade his
parents 10 attempt anything IN the way OF
systematic education till the boy was or
years of age.
Gamma ye be content to let weel alane,"
he would say, land bide till the bairn's
strang and healthy before We trouble him
to read and write? Gin ye set his brains
ableeze wiz letters and figures, yell Just
be burnin' down the house that's meant
to be the habitation of a fine soul; gin We
wad hauld your hands Oft it and leave it
alanei"
And little Sandie did very well, though
unable to read or write till long after the
age at which the children of his fathers
laborers could spell out psalm and sign
their names in a big round hand. But
the child had a memory such as must
have been commoner III the world before
there were books to refer to at every turn
than 1t is now, and his mind was stored
that his mother and his nurse told or
sung TO him in the winter evenings. But
Mrs. Galbraith and Etfie were careful
never to tell him stories of weird or
ghostly nature, for the doctor had i'm
pressed upon them before ali things that
Sandie must never be frightened. For
gin the bairn be frlghted he Will ma sleep. -
said the astute mistress of the maid, ''and
yell just hae to sit the lang mirk even
lngs by his bed, while ye hear the maids
daItin' by candle licht below, or walking
wi their laddies; but gin ye never let him
hear o ghaists and wraiths, he'll lust
sleep like q bird wI' its head under its
wing and whiles yell be able TO leave
him and hae crack WI your neebors like
ony ither bodyr'
Though mother and nurse, actuated bv
different but equally strong motives. kept
all knowledge OF the supernatural from
the child, there came a day when his
father accused them both of poisoning his
mind with stories OF witches, warlocks
and ghosts, and making an uncanny
BARN OF the boy.
II.
When Sandie was years of age. a lean
and overgrown child without mis- front
teeth, ana any comeliness he might pos.
seSs existed only in his mothers ewes a
strange circumstance happened that
greatly perpleXed and distressed his par
ents. One cold afternoon late in October
Mrs. Galbraith told Etfie to take n md
ding and can OF broth TO an old and
very poor woman, called Elspeth McEIe.
who lived in a lone cottage a mile from
the farm, and Sandie was 10 90 with her for
the sake of the walk. The trees were al
ready stripped by the autumn gales. to
which a dead calm succeeded, and cold
log had crept up from the sea and brooded