The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-09-30
LOVES COURSE.

Shaws. myself have heard the story told
at more than one ingle within the month,
and the last recital interested me as much
as the first. In the main I think Lang
Tam was philosopher.
What has made has one amour part Of
the unwritten history of the village was
not that courtships were scarce, that young
men were few or young women distant
Time and manner were what did it, but
as to the former the Shaws were notorious.
1t was always slow in arriving at its
own mind, but having once reached it
there was no turning back. This was car
dinal and the reputation of the Shaws
rested upon it. The subject mad little
difference, and if much depended upon the
issue the more deliberate it was. Il looked
at it from all sides, and then tried 10 recl-
on with the future. The Shaw browsed
over every thought it got and then ohewed
the cud at leisure.
But it even cargied this into its love af-
fairs. The young men were exasperating,
and had the young women known any
thing better very few marriages would
have taken place in the Shaws. The latter
were accounted douce, a trait that was al
together in their favor, but it was caused
by nothing more nor less than their train
ing in patience, both by precept and OK
ample-the first IN their childhood and
the second when they were old enough to
observe for themselves.
A young man of the Shaws unconscious
" followed the leading of his heart, but
only so far He took love and fact weighed
the one against the other and became re-
Elective A struggle usually ensued, and
love sometimes won, sometimes other con
siderations, in which latter case he would
retire from the field with the admonition
to the young woman that love was terribly
deceiving and dangerous to NEEDLE with.
The two would part in silence, and the
Shaws would exonerate the young man.
No one never knew how Lang Tam be-
gan his courtship of Peggie Wilkie, but the
first real symptoms of his love, as far as
the Shaws has any record, Was the Sabbath
morning he gave Peggie a peppermint
when they met at the kirk gate. Peter
Pirn stood by and saw them. Lang Tam,
he afterward said, was like ore transfig-
| ured. He seemed to grow in height and
strobe as no one had ever seen him do be-
| fore, even to leaving Peggie a step or Two
behind in that moment of his tense emo
| ton. He stumbled when he reached the
| kirk steps, which was interpreted as cer-
( tain sign that his happiness blinded him.
| Peter said they would make q match of it
! some time, and the Shaws settled down to
see what would come of it.
| 1t was soon made manifest that Lang
| Tam and Peggie were thick in love. At
| kirk and market they were seen together
! on the brae in the evenings and down by
| the Mains Loan. Kirstie Powrie, who re
garded life only from its prosy side, de
clared that "they carried on like perfect
fules''
The Shaws withheld its Judgment.
though they recognized the seriousness of
| the situation. True love had its mien, the
| heart was never to be permitted to get the
! better of the mind, but Lang Tam and
Peggie were beyond all reason. 1t was as
if they were the only two in the Shaws
add made no disguise of it. Their love
| ripened too early. The Shaws shook its
! head, but waited. What it feared was
what happened. Lang Tam and Pcggie
were engaged before the end of two
months. The Shaws frowned and said il
was a scandal Mary Wilkie mildly re
| lnonstrated with her daughter. ,icames
Ford took his son to task for his perversity
and prayed that q right mind might be
vouchsafed him.
Peter Pirn declared years afterward that
Jeanes' prayer was the most cffectual he
| ever delivered, and, on the whole, he
thought that he might have asked for less
1t was nearly four years since the engage
ment, and Lang Tam and Peggie were still
unmarried. Had the probationary court
ship lasted that time nothing would have
| been thought of it. Tho Shaws YVES seized
| with another fear and felt that its reputa-
1 ton was in jeopardy. Lang Tam had long
| before returned to his normal mind, The
only difference noted being an absent man
ner whether with Peggie or alone. Accord
ing to report brought to the village by
young Willie Purdie, who had watched
them one evening under covert Cor TWO
hours on the edge of the Caithly woods,
about the only thing Lang Tam said IN
| answer was:
"Aye, umpha, just so-aye." And Peg
GIGS answer was:
1T is terrible hoo the time gaes by"
One or two believed that Lang Tam was
carefully considering the matter, while
others feared that his long reflections were
induced by desire to withdraw, and that
he was simTIy planning the safest means
to do it. Jeames was consulted as to the
behavior of his sun at table, and when he
told Peter that he was ''just kinda aff
his meat Peter, who was an oracle on the
subject, pronounced it "naething ava. "
Seven months later, when Jeames was
again asked for the signs he announced
hopefully:
''Weel, the laddie's beginning to Ia =,
flze, wi only half O. her parrich game. "
Ye tell me sae?" Peter said, with the
| light of import in his eye. "Then, sal
things is gettin serious. Keep a guide
look DOT, Jeames, an let's ken again hoe
he behaves -
A month later Jeames was striding
down the brae toward the wynd when hi
almost ran into Peter and William Duffy
"He's gettin on fine, - Jcanes said, re
assured. This vera mornin he cud juis
ta' a spunefu', an it was IA suner in than
it was cot again. On, aye, he's gettin OF
fine"
PETER and William exchanered glance
and nodded simultaneously. There was nj
fear of Lang Tam now. He would sool
marry Peggie.
Some time after, when Peggie was Mrs
Thomas Ford, Lang Tam explained in ;
moment of confidence to the questioning
stare of Peter:
sit was sac sweet tae think that Peggi