When a Man's Single: A Tale of Literary Life Read online

  Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)

  THE KIRRIEMUIR EDITION OF THE WORKS OF J. M. BARRIE

  WHEN A MAN'S SINGLE

  A Tale of Literary Life

  BY J. M. BARRIE

  HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 1913

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER I ROB ANGUS IS NOT A FREE MAN 1

  CHAPTER II ROB BECOMES FREE 17

  CHAPTER III ROB GOES OUT INTO THE WORLD 27

  CHAPTER IV 'THE SCORN OF SCORNS' 43

  CHAPTER V ROB MARCHES TO HIS FATE 62

  CHAPTER VI THE ONE WOMAN 80

  CHAPTER VII THE GRAND PASSION? 99

  CHAPTER VIII IN FLEET STREET 113

  CHAPTER IX MR. NOBLE SIMMS 129

  CHAPTER X THE WIGWAM 139

  CHAPTER XI ROB IS STRUCK DOWN 156

  CHAPTER XII THE STUPID SEX 169

  CHAPTER XIII THE HOUSE-BOAT 'TAWNY OWL' 183

  CHAPTER XIV MARY OF THE STONY HEART 195

  CHAPTER XV COLONEL ABINGER TAKES COMMAND 210

  CHAPTER XVI THE BARBER OF ROTTEN ROW 222

  CHAPTER XVII ROB PULLS HIMSELF TOGETHER 234

  CHAPTER XVIII THE AUDACITY OF ROB ANGUS 245

  CHAPTER XIX THE VERDICT OF THRUMS 254

  CHAPTER I

  ROB ANGUS IS NOT A FREE MAN

  One still Saturday afternoon some years ago a child pulled herselfthrough a small window into a kitchen in the kirk-wynd of Thrums. Shecame from the old graveyard, whose only outlet, when the parish churchgate is locked, is the windows of the wynd houses that hoop it round.Squatting on a three-legged stool she gazed wistfully at a letter on thechimney-piece, and then, tripping to the door, looked up and down thewynd.

  Snecky Hobart, the bellman, hobbled past, and, though Davy was only fouryears old, she knew that as he had put on his blue top-coat he expectedthe evening to be fine. Tammas McQuhatty, the farmer of T'nowhead, methim at the corner, and they came to a standstill to say, 'She's hard,Sneck,' and 'She is so, T'nowhead,' referring to the weather. Observingthat they had stopped they moved on again.

  Women and children and a few men squeezed through their windows into thekirkyard, the women to knit stockings on fallen tombstones, and the mento dander pleasantly from grave to grave reading the inscriptions. Allthe men were well up in years, for though, with the Auld Lichts, theSabbath began to come on at six o'clock on Saturday evening, the youngmen were now washing themselves cautiously in tin basins before goinginto the square to talk about women.

  The clatter of more than one loom could still have been heard by Davyhad not her ears been too accustomed to the sound to notice it. In theadjoining house Bell Mealmaker was peppering her newly-washed floor withsand, while her lodger, Hender Robb, with a rusty razor in his hand,looked for his chin in a tiny glass that was peeling on the wall. JinnyTosh had got her husband, Aundra Lunan, who always spoke of her as She,ready, so to speak, for church eighteen hours too soon, and Aundra satstiffly at the fire, putting his feet on the ribs every minute, to drawthem back with a scared look at Her as he remembered that he had on hisblacks. In a bandbox beneath the bed was his silk hat, which had beenknocked down to him at Jamie Ramsay's roup, and Jinny had already puthis red handkerchief, which was also a pictorial history of Scotland,into a pocket of his coat-tails, with a corner hanging gracefully out.Her puckered lips signified that, however much her man might desire todo so, he was not to carry his handkerchief to church in his hat, whereno one could see it. On working days Aundra held his own, but at sixo'clock on Saturday nights he passed into Her hands.

  Across the wynd, in which a few hens wandered, Pete Todd was supping inhis shirt-sleeves. His blacks lay ready for him in the coffin-bed, andPete, glancing at them at intervals, supped as slowly as he could. Inone hand he held a saucer, and in the other a chunk of bread, and theywere as far apart as Pete's outstretched arms could put them. His chairwas a yard from the table, on which, by careful balancing, he rested ashoeless foot, and his face was twisted to the side. Every time EasieWhamond, his wife, passed him she took the saucer from his hand,remarking that when a genteel man sat down to tea he did not turn hisback on the table. Pete took this stolidly, like one who had long givenup trying to understand the tantrums of women, and who felt that, as alord of creation, he could afford to let it pass.

  Davy sat on her three-legged stool keeping guard over her uncle Rob thesaw-miller's letter, and longing for him to come. She screwed up hereyebrows as she had seen him do when he read a letter, and she felt thatit would be nice if every one would come and look at her taking care ofit. After a time she climbed up on her stool and stretched her dimpledarms toward the mantelpiece. From a string suspended across this, socksand stockings hung drying at the fire, and clutching one of them Davydrew herself nearer. With a chuckle, quickly suppressed, lest it shouldbring in Kitty Wilkie, who ought to have been watching her instead ofwandering down the wynd to see who was to have salt-fish for supper, thechild clutched the letter triumphantly, and, toddling to the door,slipped out of the house.

  For a moment Davy faltered at the mouth of the wynd. There was no onethere to whom she could show the letter. A bright thought entered herhead, and immediately a dimple opened on her face and swallowed all thepuckers. Rob had gone to the Whunny muir for wood, and she would takethe letter to him. Then when Rob saw her he would look all around him,and if there was no one there to take note he would lift her to hisshoulder, when they could read the letter together.

  Davy ran out of the wynd into the square, thinking she heard Kitty'sSabbath voice, which reminded the child of the little squeaking saw thatRob used for soft wood. On week-days Kitty's voice was the big saw thatpuled and rasped, and Mag Wilkie shivered at it. Except to her husbandMag spoke with her teeth closed, so politely that no one knew what shesaid.

  Davy stumbled up the steep brae down which men are blown in winter totheir work, until she reached the rim of the hollow in which Thrumslies. Here the road stops short, as if frightened to cross the common ofwhin that bars the way to the north. On this common there are manycart-tracks over bumpy sward and slippery roots, that might be the ribsof the earth showing, and Davy, with a dazed look in her eyes, ran downone of them, the whins catching her frock to stop her, and then lettinggo, as if, after all, one child more or less in the world was nothing tothem.

  By and by she found herself on another road, along which Rob had trudgedearlier in the day with a saw on his shoulder, but he had gone east, andthe child's face was turned westward. It is a muddy road even in summer,and those who use it frequently get into the habit of lifting their legshigh as they walk, like men picking their way through beds of rottingleaves. The light had faded from her baby face now, but her mouth wasfirm-set, and her bewildered eyes were fixed straight ahead.

  The last person to see Davy was Tammas Haggart, who, w
ith his waistcoatbuttoned over his jacket, and garters of yarn round his trousers, wasslowly breaking stones, though the road swallowed them quicker than hecould feed it. Tammas heard the child approaching, for his hearing hadbecome very acute, owing to his practice when at home of listeningthrough the floor to what the folks below were saying, and of sometimesjoining in. He leant on his hammer and watched her trot past.

  The strength went gradually from Tammas's old arms, and again resting onhis hammer he removed his spectacles and wiped them on his waistcoat. Hetook a comprehensive glance around at the fields, as if he now had anopportunity of seeing them for the first time during his sixty years'pilgrimage in these parts, and his eyes wandered aimlessly from thesombre firs and laughing beeches to the white farms that dot the strath.In the foreground two lazy colts surveyed him critically across a dyke.To the north the frowning Whunny hill had a white scarf round its neck.

  Something troubled Tammas. It was the vision of a child in a draggledpinafore, and stepping into the middle of the road he looked down it inthe direction in which Davy had passed.

  'Chirsty Angus's lassieky,' he murmured.

  Tammas sat down cautiously on the dyke and untied the red handkerchiefthat contained the remnants of his dinner. When he had smacked his lipsover his flagon of cold kail, and seen the last of his crumbling oatmealand cheese, his uneasiness returned, and he again looked down the road.

  'I maun turn the bairn,' was his reflection.

  It was now, however, half an hour since Davy had passed Tammas Haggart'scairn.

  To Haggart, pondering between the strokes of his hammer, came amole-catcher who climbed the dyke and sat down beside him.

  'Ay, ay,' said the new-comer; to which Tammas replied abstractedly--

  'Jamie.'

  'Hae ye seen Davy Dundas?' the stone-breaker asked, after the pause thatfollowed this conversation.

  The mole-catcher stared heavily at his corduroys.

  'I dinna ken him,' he said at last, 'but I hae seen naebody this twa'oors.'

  'It's no a him, it's a her. Ye canna hae been a' winter here withootkennin' Rob Angus.'

  'Ay, the saw-miller. He was i' the wud the day. I saw his cart gae hame.Ou, in coorse I ken Rob. He's an amazin' crittur.'

  Tammas broke another stone as carefully as if it were a nut.

  'I dinna deny,' he said, 'but what Rob's a curiosity. So was his faitherafore 'im.'

  'I've heard auld Rob was a queer body,' said Jamie, addingincredulously, 'they say he shaved twice i' the week an' wore a cleandickey ilka day.'

  'No what ye wad say ilka day, but oftener than was called for. Rob wasnanaturally ostentatious; na, it was the wife 'at insistit on't. Nanny wasa terrible tid for cleanness. Ay, an' it's a guid thing in moderation,but she juist overdid it; yes, she overdid it. Man, it had sic a hand onher 'at even on her deathbed they had to bring a basin to her to washher hands in.'

  'Ay, ay? When there was sic a pride in her I wonder she didna lat youngRob to the college, an' him sae keen on't.'

  'Ou, he was gaen, but ye see auld Rob got gey dottle after Nanny'sdeath, an' so young Rob stuck to the saw-mill. It's curious hoo a bodymisses his wife when she's gone. Ay, it's like the clock stoppin'.'

  'Weel, Rob's no gettin' to the college hasna made 'im humble.'

  'Ye dinna like Rob?'

  'Hoo did ye find that oot?' asked Jamie, a little taken aback. 'Man,Tammas,' he added admiringly, 'ye're michty quick i' the uptak.'

  Tammas handed his snuff-mull to the mole-catcher, and then helpedhimself.

  'I daursay, I daursay,' he said thoughtfully.

  'I've naething to say agin the saw-miller,' continued Jamie, afterthinking it out, 'but there's something in's face at's no sociable. Helooks as if he was takkin ye aff in's inside.'

  'Ay, auld Rob was a sarcestic stock too. It rins i' the blood.'

  'I prefer a mair common kind o' man, bein' o' the common kind mysel.'

  'Ay, there's naething sarcestic about you, Jamie,' admitted thestone-breaker.

  'I'm an ord'nar man, Tammas.'

  'Ye are, Jamie, ye are.'

  'Maybe no sae oncommon ord'nar either.'

  'Middlin' ord'nar, middlin' ord'nar.'

  'I'm thinkin' ye're braw an' sarcestic yersel, Tammas?'

  'I'd aye that repootation, Jeames. 'Am no an everyday sarcesticist, butjuist noos an' nans. There was ae time I was speakin' tae Easie Webster,an' I said a terrible sarcestic thing. Ay, I dinna mind what it was, butit was michty sarcestic.'

  'It's a gift,' said the mole-catcher.

  'A gift it is,' said Tammas.

  The stone-breaker took his flagon to a spring near at hand and rinsed itout. Several times while pulling it up and down the little pool anuneasy expression crossed his face as he remembered something about achild, but in washing his hands, using sand for soap, Davy slipped hismemory, and he returned cheerfully to the cairn. Here Jamie was wagginghis head from side to side like a man who had caught himself thinking.

  'I'll warrant, Tammas,' he said, 'ye cudna tell's what set's on to speakaboot Rob Angus?'

  'Na, it's a thing as has often puzzled me hoo we select wan topic mairthan anither. I suppose it's like shootin'; ye juist blaze awa at thefirst bird 'at rises.'

  'Ye was sayin', had I seen a lass wi' a lad's name. That began it, I'mthinkin'.'

  'A lass wi' a lad's name? Ay, noo, that's oncommon. But mebbe ye meanDavy Dundas?'

  'That's the name.'

  Tammas paused in the act of buttoning his trouser pocket.

  'Did ye say ye'd seen Davy?' he asked.

  'Na, it was you as said 'at ye had seen her.'

  'Ay, ay, Jamie, ye're richt. Man, I fully meant to turn the bairn, butshe ran by at sic a steek 'at there was nae stoppin' her. Rob'll mak anawfu' ring-ding if onything comes ower Davy.'

  'Is't the litlin 'at's aye wi' Rob?'

  'Ay, it's Chirsty Angus's bairn, her 'at was Rob's sister. A' her fowk'sdeid but Rob.'

  'I've seen them i' the saw-mill thegither. It didna strick me 'at Robcared muckle for the crittury.'

  'Ou, Rob's a reserved stock, but he's michty fond o' her when naebody'slookin'. It doesna do, ye ken, to lat on afore company at ye've a kindo' regaird for yere ain fowk. Na, it's lowerin'. But if it wasna aforeyour time, ye'd seen the cradle i' the saw-mill.'

  'I never saw ony cradle, Tammas.'

  'Weel, it was unco ingenious o' Rob. The bairn's father an' mither wasbaith gone when Davy was nae age, an' auld Rob passed awa sune efter.Rob had it all arranged to ging to the college--ay, he'd been workin'far on into the nicht the hale year to save up siller to keep 'imsel atEdinbory, but ye see he promised Chirsty to look after Davy an' no sendher to the parish. He took her to the saw-mill an' brocht her up 'imsel.It was a terrible disappointment to Rob, his mind bein' bent on becomin'a great leeterary genius, but he's been michty guid to the bairn. Ay,she's an extr'or'nar takkin dawty, Davy, an' though I wudna like itkent, I've a fell notion o' her mysel. I mind ance gaen in to Rob's,an', wud ye believe, there was the bit lassieky sitting in theairm-chair wi' ane o' Rob's books open on her knees, an' her pertendin'to be readin' oot in't to Rob. The tiddy had watched him readin', yeun'erstan', an', man, she was mimickin' 'im to the life. There's naeaccountin' for thae things, but ondootedly it was attractive.'

  'But what aboot a cradle?'

  'Ou, as I was sayin', Rob didna like to lat the bairn oot o' his sicht,so he made a queer cradle 'imsel, an' put it ower the burn. Ye'll mindthe burn rins through the saw-mill? Ay, weel, Davie's cradle was putacross't wi' the paddles sae arranged 'at the watter rocked the cradle.Man, the burn was juist like a mither to Davy, for no only did it rockher to sleep, but it sang to the bairn the hale time.'

  'That was an ingenious contrivance, Tammas; but it was juist like RobAngus's ind'pendence. The crittur aye perseests in doin' a'thing for'imsel. I mind ae day seein' Cree Deuchars puttin' in a window into thesaw-mill hoose, an' Rob's fingers was fair itchin' to do't quick 'imsel;ye ken Cree's fell slow? "
See haud o' the potty," cries Rob, an' losh,he had the window in afore Cree cud hae cut the glass. Ay, ye canna denybut what Rob's fearfu' independent.'

  'So was his faither. I call to mind auld Rob an' the minister ha'en atermendous debate aboot justification by faith, an' says Rob i' the tailo' the day, gettin' passionate-like, "I tell ye flat, Mester Byars," hesays, "if I dinna ging to heaven in my ain wy, I dinna ging ava!"'

  'Losh, losh! he wudna hae said that, though, to oor minister; na, hewudna hae daured.'

  'Ye're a U.P., Jamie?' asked the stone-breaker.

  'I was born U.P.,' replied the mole-catcher firmly, 'an' U.P. I'll die.'

  'I say naething agin yer releegion,' replied Tammas, a littlecontemptuously, 'but to compare yer minister to oors is a haver. Man,when Mester Byars was oor minister, Sanders Dobie, the wricht, had astandin' engagement to mend the poopit ilka month.'

  'We'll no speak o' releegion, Tammas, or we'll be quarrellin'. Ye michttell's, though, hoo they cam to gie a lassieky sic a man's name asDavy.'

  'It was an accident at the christenin'. Ye see, Hendry Dundas an'Chirsty was both vary young, an' when the bairn was born, they wereshy-like aboot makkin the affair public; ay, Hendry cud hardly takcourage to tell the minister. When he was haddin' up the bit tid in thekirk to be baptized he was remarkable egitated. Weel, the minister--itwas Mester Dishart--somehoo had a notion 'at the litlin was a laddie,an' when he reads the name on the paper, "Margaret Dundas," he looks atHendry wi' the bairny in 's airms, an' says he, stern-like, "The child'sa boy, is he not?"'

  'Sal, that was a predeecament for Hendry.'

  'Ay, an' Hendry was confused, as a man often is wi' his first; so sayshe, all trem'lin', "Yes, Mr. Dishart." "Then," says the minister, "Icannot christen him Margaret, so I will call him David." An' Davit thelitlin was baptized, sure eneuch.'

  'The mither wud be in a michty wy at that?'

  'She was so, but as Hendry said, when she challenged him on the subject,says Hendry, "I dauredna conterdick the minister."'

  Haggart's work being now over for the day, he sat down beside Jamie toawait some other stone-breakers who generally caught him up on their wayhome. Strange figures began to emerge from the woods, a dumb man with abarrowful of roots for firewood, several women in men's coats, onesmoking a cutty-pipe. A farm-labourer pulled his heavy legs in theirrustling corduroys alongside a field of swedes, a ragged potato-boglebrandished its arms in a sudden puff of wind. Several men and womenreached Haggart's cairn about the same time, and said, 'It is so,' or'Ay, ay,' to him, according as they were loquacious or merely polite.

  'We was speakin' aboot matermony,' the mole-catcher remarked, as theback-bent little party straggled toward Thrums.

  'It's a caution,' murmured the farm-labourer, who had heard theobservation from the other side of the dyke. 'Ay, ye may say so,' headded thoughtfully, addressing himself.

  With the mole-catcher's companions, however, the talk passed intoanother rut. Nevertheless Haggart was thinking matrimony over, and byand by he saw his way to a joke, for one of the other stone-breakers hadrecently married a very small woman, and in Thrums, where women have towork, the far-seeing men prefer their wives big.

  'Ye drew a sma' prize yersel, Sam'l,' said Tammas, with the gleam in hiseye which showed that he was now in sarcastic fettle.

  'Ay,' said the mole-catcher, 'Sam'l's Kitty is sma'. I suppose Sam'lthocht it wud be prudent-like to begin in a modest wy.'

  'If Kitty hadna haen sae sma' hands,' said another stone-breaker, 'I wudhae haen a bid for her mysel.'

  The women smiled; they had very large hands.

  'They say,' said the youngest of them, who had a load of firewood on herback, ''at there's places whaur little hands is thocht muckle o'.'

  There was an incredulous laugh at this.

  'I wudna wonder, though,' said the mole-catcher, who had travelled;'there's some michty queer ideas i' the big toons.'

  'Ye'd better ging to the big toons, then, Sam'l,' suggested themerciless Tammas.

  Sam'l woke up.

  'Kitty's sma',' he said, with a chuckle, 'but she's an auld tid.'

  'What made ye think o' speirin' her, Sam'l?'

  'I cudna say for sartin,' answered Sam'l reflectively. 'I had naeintention o't till I saw Pete Proctor after her, an' syne, thinks I,I'll hae her. Ay, ye micht say as Pete was the instrument o' Providencein that case.'

  'Man, man,' murmured Jamie, who knew Pete, 'Providence sometimes maksuse o' strange instruments.'

  'Ye was lang in gettin' a man yersel, Jinny,' said Tammas to an elderlywoman.

  'Fower-an'-forty year,' replied Jinny. 'It was like a stockin', lang i'the futin', but turned at last.'

  'Lasses nooadays,' said the old woman who smoked, 'is partikler by whatthey used to be. I mind when Jeames Gowrie speired me: "Ye wud raitherhae Davit Curly, I ken," he says. "I dinna deny 't," I says, for thething was well kent, "but ye'll do vara weel, Jeames," says I, an' mairyhim I did.'

  'He was a harmless crittur, Jeames,' said Haggart, 'but queer. Ay, hewas full o' maggots.'

  'Ay,' said Jeames's widow, 'but though it's no for me to say 't, he deida deacon.'

  'There's some rale queer wys o' speirin' a wuman,' began themole-catcher.

  'Vary true, Jamie,' said a stone-breaker. 'I mind hoo----'

  'There was a chappy ower by Blair,' continued Jamie, raising his voice,''at micht hae been a single man to this day if it hadna been for thetoothache.'

  'Ay, man?'

  'Joey Fargus was the stock's name. He was oncommon troubled wi' thetoothache till he found a cure.'

  'I didna ken o' ony cure for sair teeth?'

  'Joey's cure was to pour cauld watter strecht on into his mooth for themaiter o' twa 'oors, an' ae day he cam into Blair an' found JessMcTaggart (a speerity bit thingy she was--ou, she was so) fair greetin'wi' sair teeth. Joey advised the crittur to try his cure, an' when heleft she was pourin' the watter into her mooth ower the sink. Weel, itso happened 'at Joey was in Blair again aboot twa month after, an' hegies a cry in at Willie's--that's Jess's father's, as ye'll un'erstan'.Ay, then, Jess had haen anither fit o' the toothache, an' she washingin' ower the sink wi' a tanker o' watter in her han', just as she'dbeen when he saw her last. "What!" says Joey, wi' rale consairn, "naebetter yet?" The stock thocht she had been haddin' gaen at the watter a'thae twa month.'

  'I call to mind,' the stone-breaker broke in again, 'hoo a body----'

  'So,' continued Jamie, 'Joey cudna help but admire the patience o' thelassie, an' says he, "Jess," he says, "come oot by to Mortar Pits, an'try oor well." That's hoo Joey Fargus speired's wife, an' if ye dinnabelieve's, ye've nae mair to do but ging to Mortar Pits an' see the wellyersels.'

  'I recall,' said the stone-breaker, 'a vary neat case o' speirin'. Itwas Jocky Wilkie, him 'at's brither was grieve to Broken Busses, an'the lass was Leeby Lunan. She was aye puttin' Jocky aff when he was onthe point o' speirin' her, keepin' 'im hingin' on the hook like a trout,as ye may say, an' takkin her fling wi' ither lads at the same time.'

  'Ay, I've kent them do that.'

  'Weel, it fair maddened Jocky, so ae nicht he gings to her father'shoose wi' a present o' a grand thimble to her in his pooch, an' aforethe hale hoosehold he perdooces't an' flings't wi' a bang on thedresser:

  "Tak it," he says to Leeby, "or leave't." In coorse the thing's bein'done sae public-like, Leeby kent she had to mak up her mind there an'then. Ay, she took it.'

  'But hoo did ye speir Chirsty yersel, Dan'l?' asked Jinny of thespeaker.

  There was a laugh at this, for, as was well known, Dan'l had jiltedChirsty.

  'I never kent I had speired,' replied the stone-breaker, 'till Chirstytold me.'

  'Ye'll no say ye wasna fond o' her?'

  'Sometimes I was, an' syne at other times I was indifferent-like. Themair I thocht o't the mair risky I saw it was, so i' the tail o' the dayI says to Chirsty, says I, "Na, na, Chirsty, lat's be as I am."'

  'They say she took on terrible, Dan'l.'

>   'Ay, nae doot, but a man has 'imsel to conseeder.'

  By this time they had crossed the moor of whins. It was a cold, stillevening, and as they paused before climbing down into the town theyheard the tinkle of a bell.

  'That's Snecky's bell,' said the mole-catcher; 'what can he be cryin' atthis time o' nicht?'

  'There's something far wrang,' said one of the women. 'Look, a'body'srinnin' to the square.'

  The troubled look returned to Tammas Haggart's face, and he stopped tolook back across the fast-darkening moor.

  'Did ony o' ye see little Davy Dundas, the saw-miller's bairny?' hebegan.

  At that moment a young man swept by. His teeth were clenched, his eyesglaring.

  'Speak o' the deil,' said the mole-catcher; 'that was Rob Angus.'