Sir Gibbie

The moment they were settled in the Auld Hoose, Gibbie resumed the habits of the former winter, which Mistress Croale’s failure had interrupted. And what a change it was to Gine...

The second winter came, and with the first frost Gibbie resumed his sheepskin coat and the brogues and leggings which he had made for himself of deer-hide tanned with the hair....

They reached at length the valley road. The water that ran in the bottom was the Lorrie. Three days ago it was a lively little stream, winding and changing within its grassy ban...

Donal had not accompanied Mr. Sclater and his ward, as he generally styled him, to the city, but continued at the Mains until another herd-boy should be found to take his place....

It was a lovely Saturday evening on Glashgar. The few flowers about the small turf cottage scented the air in the hot western sun. The heather was not in bloom yet, and there we...

The cottage to which Mr. Galbraith had taken Ginevra, stood in a suburban street--one of those small, well-built stone houses common, I fancy, throughout Scotland, with three ro...

No man can order his life, for it comes flowing over him from behind. But if it lay before us, and we could watch its current approaching from a long distance, what could we do...

It will be plain from what I have told, that Donal’s imagination was full of Ginevra, and his was not an economy whose imagination could enjoy itself without calling the heart t...

Such were the events of every night, and such had they been since Gibbie first assumed this office of guardian--a time so long in proportion to his life that it seemed to him as...

As soon as Gibbie had found a stall for Crummie, and thrown a great dinner before her, he turned and sped back the way he had come: there was no time to lose if he would have th...

Gibbie was now without a home. He had had a whole city for his dwelling, every street of which had been to him as another hall in his own house, every lane as a passage from one...

Mistress Croale was not, after all, the last who arrived at the Mains. But that the next arrival was accounted for, scarcely rendered it less marvellous than hers.--Just after t...

Donal threw everything aside, careless of possible disgrace in the class the next morning, and, trembling with hope, accompanied Gibbie: she would be there--surely! It was one o...

One morning they found, on reaching the manse, that the minister was very unwell, and that in consequence Miss Machar could not attend to Ginevra; they turned, therefore, to wal...

The first opportunity Donal had, he questioned Fergus as to his share in the ill-usage of Gibbie. Fergus treated the inquiry as an impertinent interference, and mounted his high...

It was now time he should resume his journey up Daurside, and he set out to follow the burn that he might regain the river. It led him into a fine meadow, where a number of catt...

Once away, Gibbie had no thought of returning. _Up Daurside_ was the sole propulsive force whose existence he recognized. But when he lifted his head from drinking at the stream...

No one was so sorry for the death of Sir George, or had so many kind words to say in memory of him, as Mistress Croale. Neither was her sorrow only because she had lost so good...

By this time Gibbie had got well up towards the roots of the hills of Gormgarnet, and the river had dwindled greatly. He was no longer afraid of it, but would lie for hours list...

Almost from the first moment of his being domiciled on Glashgar, what with the good food, the fine exercise, the exquisite air, and his great happiness, Gibbie began to grow; an...

Ever since he became a dweller in the air of Glashgar, Gibbie, mindful of his first visit thereto, and of his grand experience on that occasion, had been in the habit, as often...

It was high time, according to agricultural economics, that Donal Grant should be promoted a step in the ranks of labour. A youth like him was fit for horses and their work, and...

The house he was approaching had a little the look of a prison. Of the more ancient portion the windows were very small, and every corner had a turret with a conical cap-roof. T...

The door was opened. Donal spent fully a minute rubbing his shoes on the mat, as diligently as if he had just come out of the cattle-yard, and then Gibbie led him in triumph up...

A sense of loneliness, such as in all his forsaken times he had never felt, overshadowed Gibbie when he read this letter. He was altogether perplexed by Donal’s persistent avoid...

From that very next day, then, after he was received into the cottage on Glashgar, Gibbie, as a matter of course, took upon him the work his hand could find to do, and Janet ave...

Thomas Galbraith was by birth Thomas Durrant, but had married an heiress by whom he came into possession of Glashruach, and had, according to previous agreement, taken her name....

One bright afternoon, towards the close of the autumn, the sun shining straight down one of the wide clean stony streets of the city, with a warmth which he had not been able to...

Gibbie was in a dream of mingled past and future delights, when his conductor stopped at a large and important-looking house, with a flight of granite steps up to the door. Gibb...

Gibbie went home as if Pearl-street had been the stairs of Glashgar, and the Auld Hoose a mansion in the heavens. He seemed to float along the way as one floats in a happy dream...

The sun was hot for an hour or two in the middle of the day, but even then in the shadow dwelt a cold breath--of the winter, or of death--of something that humanity felt unfrien...

The minister’s wrath, when he found he had been followed home by Gibbie who yet would not enter the house, instantly rose in redoubled strength. He was ashamed to report the aff...

Gibbie sped down the hill through a worse rain than ever. The morning was close, and the vapours that filled it were like smoke burned to the hue of the flames whence it issued....

The house at which they met had yet not a little character remaining. Mistress Croale had come in for a derived worthiness, in the memory, yet lingering about the place, of a wo...

It had come to be the custom that Gibbie should go to Donal every Friday afternoon about four o’clock, and remain with him till the same time on Saturday, which was a holiday wi...

Gibbie’s agony passed, for God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Through the immortal essence in him, life became again life, and he ran about the streets as before....

For more reasons than one, Fergus judged it prudent to tell not even auntie Jean of his intention; but, waiting until the house was quiet, stole softly from his room and repaire...

The next morning, Janet felt herself in duty bound to make inquiry concerning those interested in Miss Galbraith. She made, therefore, the best of her way with Gibbie to the _Mu...

There were no rejoicings upon Gibbie’s attainment of his twenty-first year. His guardian, believing he alone had acquainted himself with the date, and desiring in his wisdom to...

By degrees Gibbie had come to be well known about the Mains and Glashruach. Angus’s only recognition of him was a scowl in return for his smile; but, as I have said, he gave him...

The day went on, and went out, its short autumnal brightness quenched in a chilly fog. All along the Widdiehill, the gas was alight in the low-browed dingy shops. To the well-to...

Although Gibbie had taken no notice of the laird’s party, he had recognized each of the three as he came up the stair, and in Ginevra’s face read an appeal for deliverance. It s...

Gibbie found everything at the Auld Hoose in complete order for his reception: Mistress Croale had been very diligent, and promised well for a housekeeper--looked well, too, in...

“Come oot o’ the gutter, ye nickum!” cried, in harsh, half-masculine voice, a woman standing on the curbstone of a short, narrow, dirty lane, at right angles to an important tho...

In the mean time Fergus, dull as he was to doubt his own importance and success--for did not the public acknowledge both?--yet by degrees lost heart and hope so far as concerned...

It was a cold night in March, cloudy and blowing. Every human body was turned into a fortress for bare defence of life. There was no snow on the ground, but it seemed as if ther...

One cold afternoon in the end of October, when Mistress Croale was shutting up her shop in the market, and a tumbler of something hot was haunting her imagination, Gibbie came w...

Things had gone on in this way for several weeks--if Gibbie had not been such a small creature, I hardly see how they could for so long--when one morning the men came in to brea...

It may be remembered that, upon Gibbie’s disappearance from the city, great interest was felt in his fate, and such questions started about the boy himself as moved the Rev. Cle...

Up and up the hill went Gibbie. The path ceased altogether; but when _up_ is the word in one’s mind--and _up_ had grown almost a fixed idea with Gibbie--he can seldom be in doub...

I am not sure that his father’s neglect was not on the whole better for Gibbie than would have been the kindness of such a father persistently embodying itself. But the picture...

The minister kept Gibbie hard at work, and by the time Donal’s last winter came, Gibbie was ready for college also. To please Mr. Sclater he _competed_ for a bursary, and gained...

I must not linger over degrees and phases. Every morning, Gibbie got into the kitchen in good time; and not only did more and more of the work, but did it more and more to the s...

Since he came to town, Gibbie had seen Ginevra but once--that was in the North church. She looked so sad and white that his heart was very heavy for her. Could it be that she re...

That winter the old people were greatly tried with rheumatism; for not only were the frosts severe, but there was much rain between. Their children did all in their power to min...

In obedience to the suggestion of his wife, Mr. Sclater did what he could to show Sir Gilbert how mistaken he was in imagining he could fit his actions to the words of our Lord....

Change, meantime, was in progress elsewhere, and as well upon the foot as high on the side of Glashgar--change which seemed all important to those who felt the grind of the glac...

Mrs. Sclater’s first piece of business the following morning was to take Gibbie to the most fashionable tailor in the city, and have him measured for such clothes as she judged...

The next morning, the first thing after breakfast, Mr. Sclater, having reflected that Ginevra was under age and they must be careful, resumed for the nonce, with considerable sa...

Hungering minds come of peasant people as often as of any, and have appeared in Scotland as often, I fancy, as in any nation; not every Scotsman, therefore, who may not himself...

He scrambled out on the top of the hay, and looked down on the beautiful creature below him, dawning radiant again with the morning, as it issued undimmed from the black bosom o...

He might have slept longer the next morning, for there was no threshing to wake him, in spite of the cocks in the yard that made it their business to rouse sleepers to their wor...