The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825 | Page 3

At it again.
The gentleman stumbled in and I was going away when he recollected
me. Fumbling in his pocket, he picked out a coin and put it into my
hand, and the door closed. At the first lamp I looked at it; sure enough,
he had given me a sixpence. I was overjoyed, and I said to myself, I can
leave for Ayrshire now. I wakened early next morning and began my
preparations. I got speldrins and scones, tying them in the silk
handkerchief mother wore round her neck on Sundays. That and her
bible was all I had of her belongings. Where the rest had gone, a
number of pawn tickets told. I was in a hurry to be off and telling the
woman I was going to try the country I bade her goodbye. She said,
God help you, poor boy, and kissed my cheek. The bells at the Cross
were chiming out, The blue bells of Scotland, when I turned the corner
at the Saltmarket.
It was a beautiful spring-day and when I had cleared the city and got
right into the country everything was so fresh and pleasant that I could
have shouted with joy. The hedges were bursting into bloom, the grass
was dotted with daisies, and from the fields of braird rose larks and
other birds, which sang as if they rejoiced with me. I wondered why
people should stay in the city when the country was so much better. It
had one draw-back, the country-road was not as smooth as the
pavement. There was a cut in my left foot from stepping on a bit of
glass, and the dust and grit of the road got into it and gave me some
pain. I must have walked for three hours when I came to a burn that
crossed the road. I sat on a stone and bathed my foot, and with it
dangling in the water I ate a speldrin and a scone. On starting to walk, I
found my foot worse, and had to go slow and take many a rest. When
the gloaming came I was on the look out for a place to pass the night.

On finding a cosey spot behind a clump of bushes, I took my supper,
lay down, and fell asleep, for I was dead weary. The whistling of a
blackbird near my head woke me and I saw the sun was getting high.
My foot was much worse, but I had to go on. Taking from my bundle
of provisions as sparingly as my hunger would let me, I started. It was
another fine day and had my hurt foot been well I thought I would
reach my mother's parish before long. I could not walk, I just limped.
Carts passed me, but would not give me a lift. My bare feet and head
and ragged clothes made them suspicious, and as for the gentlemen in
gigs they did not look at me. When I came to spring or burn I put my
foot in it, for it was hot and swollen now. At noon I finished the food in
my bundle and went on. I had not gone far when I had to stop, and was
holding my sore foot in a spring when a tinker came along. He asked
what was wrong. Drawing a long pin out of his coat collar he felt along
the cut, and then squeezed it hard. I see it now, he remarked, and
fetching from his pouch a pair of pincers he pulled from the cut a sliver
of glass. Wrapping the cloth round it he tied it with a bit of black tape,
and told me if I kept dirt out it would heal in a day or two. Asking me
where I was going, we had some talk. He told me the parish of
Dundonald was a long way off and he did not know anybody in it by
the name of Askew. I was on the right road and could find out when I
got there. He lit his pipe and left me. I walked with more ease, and the
farther I went the hungrier I grew. Coming to a house by the side of the
road I went to the open door and asked for a cake. I have nothing for
beggars, cried a woman by the fire. I am no beggar, I answered, I will
pay you, and held out a halfpenny. She stared at me. Take these stoups
and fill them at the well. The hill was steep and the stoups heavy, but I
managed to carry them back one at a time and placed them on the
bench. She handed me a farl of oatcake and I went away. It was