El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-02-11
LANG TAM'S COURTSHIP.

lam s cOurtSn1p, IL Is sun spoken OIL III
the Shaws. 1 myself have heard the sto-
ry told at more than one ingle within the
month, and the last recital interested me
rs much as the first. In the main think
Lang Tam was n philosopher
What has made his 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 turning back. 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. 1t
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 women known any
thing better very few marriages would
have taken place in the Shaws. The lat
ter were accounted douce, trait that
was altogether in their favor, but it 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
NEEDLE with. The two would part in ST.
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 a pep
permint when they met at the kirk gate
Peter Pirn stood by and saw them. Lang
Tam, he afterward said, was like one
TRANSPORTED. He seemed to grow in
height and strobe 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 a 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.
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
regarded 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
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 frowned and said it
was a scandal Mary Wilkie mildly re-
monstrated with her daughter. Jeames
Ford took his son to task for his perver-
sity and prayed that a right mind might
be vouchsafed him.
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. 1t was nearly four years since the
engagement. and Lang Tam and Peggie
were still unmarried. Had the probation
airy 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
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:
at 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 reflec
tons were induced by a desire to with
draw and that he was simply planning
the safest means to do it. Jeames was
consulted as to the behavior of his son
at table, and when he told Peter that he
was '.just a kinda aft his meat" Peter,
who was an oracle on the subject, pro-
nounced it ''naething ava" Seven months
later, when Jeames was again asked for
the signs, he announced hopefully:
"Weel, the laddie's beginnin to fke,
6ke. WI only half O. her parrich game"
Eye tell me sae?" Peter said, with the
light of import in his eye. '"Then, sal,
things is gettin serious. Keep a guide
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
fy.
Hes gettin on fine" Jeames said, re-
assured. "This vera mornin he cud just
ta' a spunefu', an it was ma suner in than
it was DOT again. Gu, aye, he's gettin on