448 The Little Minister

so of course he was nearly drownded, and he
preached to them till they liked him again, and
so they let him marry her, and they like her
awful, too, and, just think ! it was my father; and
that’s all. Now tell me about grandmother when
father came home.”

I told her once again that Margaret never
knew how nearly Gavin was driven from his kirk.
For Margaret was as one who goes to bed in the
daytime and wakes in it, and is not told that there
has been a black night while she slept. She had
seen her son leave the manse the idol of his
people, and she saw them rejoicing as they brought
him back. Of what occurred at the Jaws, as the
spot where Dow had saved two lives is now called,
she learned, but not that these Jaws snatched him
and her from an ignominy more terrible than death,
for she never knew that the people had medi-
tated driving him from his kirk. This Thrums
is bleak and perhaps forbidding, but there is a
moment of the day when a setting sun dyes it
pink, and the people are like their town. Thrums
was never colder in times of snow than were his
congregation to their minister when the Great
Rain began, but his fortitude rekindled their
hearts. He was an obstinate minister, and love
had led him a dance, but in the hour of trial he
had proved himself a man.

When Gavin reached the manse, and saw not
only his mother but Babbie, he would have kissed
them both; but Babbie could only say, “She
does not know,” and then run away crying.
Gavin put his arm round his mother, and drew
her into the parlour, where he told her who