The daily morning Alaskan., 1901-01-13
LANG TAM'S COURTSHIP.


 ry told Ut more than on, ingle within the month, and the last rectal interested me as much as the first. h the main I think Lang Tam was philosopher.
 What has made his one amour part of the unwritten history O. the village was not that courtships were scarce, that young men were few Dr young women distant. Time and manner were what d.d it, but as to the fTmer the Shaws were notorious.
 It was always slow il arriving at its own mind; but, having once reached it, there was no turning pack. This was cardinal, and the reputation of the Shaws rested upon it. The subject made little difference, and if much depended upon the issue the more deliberate it was. It looked at it from all sides and then tried to reckon with the future. The Shaws browsed over every thought it got and then chewed the cud at leisure.
 But it even carried this into its love af- fairs. The young men Were exasperating, and had the young wornen known any thing better very few marriages would have taken place in the Shaws. The lat ter were accounted douee, trait that was altogether in their favor, but 1t was caused by nothing more or less than their training in patience, both by precept and | example-the first in their childhood and the second when they were old enough to | observe for themselves.
 A young man of the Shaws uncon- | sciously followed the leading of his heart. but only so far. He took love and fact, weighed the one against the other and be- came reflective. A struggle usually en- sued, and love sometimes won, sometimes other considerations, 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 meddle with. The two would part in si- lence, and the Shaws would exonerate the young man.
 No one ever 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 pep | permint when they met at the kirk gate. | Peter Pirn stood by and saw them. Lang Tam, he afterward said. was like one | transfgured. He seemed to grow in height and strode as no one had ever seen him do before, even to-leaving Peggie a step or two behind in that moment of his tense emotion. He stumbled when he reached the kirk steps, which was inter- preted as certain sign that his happi- ness blinded him. Peter said they would make a match of it some time. and the Shaws settled down to see what would come of it.
 It was soon made manifest that Lang | Tam and Peggie were thick in love. At | riy nd orlya at fonafbar | on the brae in the evenings and down by | the Mains Loan. Kirstie Powrie, who | regarded life only from it's prosy side, de- | clared that they carried on like perfect | fules."
 The Shaws withheld It's judgment, | though they recognized the seriousness of | the situation. True love had it's men, the heart was never to be permitted to get | the better of the mind, but Lang Tam and Peggie were beyond all reason. It was as if they were the only two in the Shaws and made no disguise of it, Their love ripened too early. The Shaws shook it's head, but waited. What it feared was what happened Lang Tam and Peggie | were engaged before the end of two | months. The Shaws drowned and said it was scandal. Mary Wilkie mildly re- monstrated with her daughter. Jeames | Ford took his son to task for his perver- sity and prayed that right mind might l be vouchsafed him. ;a- a-,se- Peter Pirn declared years afterward that Jeames' prayer was the most effec- tual he ever delivered, and, on the whole, he thought that he might have asked for less. It was nearly four years since the engagement, and Lang Tam and Peggie were still unmarried. Had the probation ary courtship lasted that time nothing would have been thought of it. The Shaws was seized with another fear and felt that its reputation was in jeopardy. Lang Tam had long before returned to his normal mind, the only difference not ed being an absent manner whether with Peggie or alone. According to a report brought to the village by young Willie Purdie, who had watched them one even ing under covert for two hours on the l edge of the Caithly woods, about the only thing Lang Tam said in answer was:
 Aye. umpha, just so-aye." And Peg. | gie's answer was:
 | Tt 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 refec- | tions were induced by a desire to with draw and that he was simply planning | the safest means to do 1t. Jeames was | consulted as to the behavior of his son | at table, and when he told Peter that he was ''jast kinda afr his meat" Peter, who was an oracle on the subject, pro- 1ornced it ''naething ava" Seven months | atcr, when .Ieames was again asked for the signs. he announced hopefully: | "Weel, the laddie's beginnin to ike, ike, wi cnly half O her parrich gane."
 "Ye tell me sae?' Peter said, with the | tight of import in his eye. ''Then, sal, things is gettin serious. Keep a gude lookoot, Jeames, an let's ken again hoo | he behaves"
 A month later Jeames was striding down the brae toward the wynd when he almost ran into Peter and William Duff ty.
 "He's gettin on fne," Jeames said, re- assured "1'his vera mornin he cud just ta' a spunefu', an it was na suner in than t was oot again. Gu, aye, he's gettin on fne."
 Peter and William exchanged glances md nodded simultaneously. There was no fear of Lang Tam now. He would soon marry Peggie.
 Some time after. when Peggie was Mrs. Thomas Ford, Lang Tam explained in moment of confidence to the ques- .ioning stare of Peter:
 Tt was sac sweet tae think that Peg yie was mine that just roued an roued t like sweet morsel under my tongue intil cudna keep the lassie waitin ony anger, but the mair thocht O the time