For Lack of Gold

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Excerpt from For Lack of Gold: A Novel Every thing was to be sold-stock and plenishing, crop, cattle, implements, and household gear. Even with all, it was feared there would not be enough realized to satisfy the creditors. Intimation of the sale had been posted on the gate of the parish kirk for a fortnight previous, and for two Sabbath afternoons it had formed the staple of conversation for the folks of the village, and of the farms and cottar houses for ten miles round. There were peculiar circumstances associated with the event, and it was canvassed by all classes with as much interest as they displayed in debating the soundness of the doctrine enunciated by the new minister in his latest sermon. Discussions as to the result of the harvest, which was just over the question of the price of barley and of the prospects of the green crop, were interspersed with comments, ejaculations, and surmises regarding the forthcoming sale. On the morning of the appointed day, Benjie Geddes, the old shoe-maker and bellman, made a tour of the village, with the slow steps of one conscious of responsibility. His bell kept time to his deliberate motions, and at intervals he paused, while in a cracked voice he made this proclamation: "Take no-tice, there will be sauld, this day, by pub-lic roup, at Drumslieve, the stock, and the crop, and the plenishing, and the house effecks, as specifeed twa or three weeks syne. The roup to begin at ten o' the clock and suner if the folk gather. Oh aye, oh aye." Three emphatic clangs of the bell closed the announcement, and Benjie, with his pale gray eyes fixed steadily before him, and his weather-pinched features set as hard as if he feared that somebody would corrupt him in the discharge of his duty by tempting him with a dram, made his way through the little group which gathered round him at every halt. His pace was a species of hobble- half shuffle and half trot- displaying much action, although it attained little speed. In this way he proceeded down the street, attended by a troop of boys and girls who were going to school. For the most part, the boys carried their books under their arms, and the chief book of each pack was the Bible, in its pale yellow marled sheep-skin binding, which seemed to have been expressly designed to match the yellow ochre of the cottage interior walls. The girls had cotton bags, mostly of a blue check pattern, and these contained their books and "pieces"- a scone and treacle, or a bannock. In favored instances there were, hidden in the lower depths of the bags, or in the pouches of the boys among marbles and bits of twine, apples or sweeties, which were frequently exchanged as love-tokens whenever the dominie happened to be busy with his blackboard, and his back turned to his pupils. At the foot of the street Benjie turned to the left, taking the road for Drumslieve, and the greater part of his retinue reluctantly deserted him to proceed to the school, which stood on the rising ground a little way off the main road. But several of the youngsters continued to follow him, prompted by sheer willfulness or tempted by the bright October day. They enjoyed as truants can enjoy the great gusts of wind which swept down from the Grampians and across the howe, shaking the trees until the leaves fluttered to the ground in showers, and were whirled along the road in fantastic contortions suggestive of the gambols of elves and fays. The truants gambolled too, forgetting the school and the tawse that leather strap, with one half cut in stripes, which, deftly wielded, made the palms of the culprits tingle. It was the dominie's instrument of torture, and his sceptre at the same time. To escape its infliction every artifice of youthful guile was put in force, yet the truants were remarkably deficient in i