Kidnapped | Page 4

That is the place I came from,'
he said, 'and it's where it befits that my boy should return. He is a steady lad,' your father

said, 'and a canny goer; and I doubt not he will come safe, and be well lived where he
goes.'"
"The house of Shaws!" I cried. "What had my poor father to do with the house of
Shaws?"
"Nay," said Mr. Campbell, "who can tell that for a surety? But the name of that family,
Davie, boy, is the name you bear--Balfours of Shaws: an ancient, honest, reputable house,
peradventure in these latter days decayed. Your father, too, was a man of learning as
befitted his position; no man more plausibly conducted school; nor had he the manner or
the speech of a common dominie; but (as ye will yourself remember) I took aye a
pleasure to have him to the manse to meet the gentry; and those of my own house,
Campbell of Kilrennet, Campbell of Dunswire, Campbell of Minch, and others, all
well-kenned gentlemen, had pleasure in his society. Lastly, to put all the elements of this
affair before you, here is the testamentary letter itself, superscrived by the own hand of
our departed brother."
He gave me the letter, which was addressed in these words: "To the hands of Ebenezer
Balfour, Esquire, of Shaws, in his house of Shaws, these will be delivered by my son,
David Balfour." My heart was beating hard at this great prospect now suddenly opening
before a lad of seventeen years of age, the son of a poor country dominie in the Forest of
Ettrick.
"Mr. Campbell," I stammered, "and if you were in my shoes, would you go?"
"Of a surety," said the minister, "that would I, and without pause. A pretty lad like you
should get to Cramond (which is near in by Edinburgh) in two days of walk. If the worst
came to the worst, and your high relations (as I cannot but suppose them to be somewhat
of your blood) should put you to the door, ye can but walk the two days back again and
risp at the manse door. But I would rather hope that ye shall be well received, as your
poor father forecast for you, and for anything that I ken come to be a great man in time.
And here, Davie, laddie," he resumed, "it lies near upon my conscience to improve this
parting, and set you on the right guard against the dangers of the world."
Here he cast about for a comfortable seat, lighted on a big boulder under a birch by the
trackside, sate down upon it with a very long, serious upper lip, and the sun now shining
in upon us between two peaks, put his pocket-handkerchief over his cocked hat to shelter
him. There, then, with uplifted forefinger, he first put me on my guard against a
considerable number of heresies, to which I had no temptation, and urged upon me to be
instant in my prayers and reading of the Bible. That done, he drew a picture of the great
house that I was bound to, and how I should conduct myself with its inhabitants.
"Be soople, Davie, in things immaterial," said he. "Bear ye this in mind, that, though
gentle born, ye have had a country rearing. Dinnae shame us, Davie, dinnae shame us! In
yon great, muckle house, with all these domestics, upper and under, show yourself as nice,
as circumspect, as quick at the conception, and as slow of speech as any. As for the
laird--remember he's the laird; I say no more: honour to whom honour. It's a pleasure to

obey a laird; or should be, to the young."
"Well, sir," said I, "it may be; and I'll promise you I'll try to make it so."
"Why, very well said," replied Mr. Campbell, heartily. "And now to come to the material,
or (to make a quibble) to the immaterial. I have here a little packet which contains four
things." He tugged it, as he spoke, and with some great difficulty, from the skirt pocket of
his coat. "Of these four things, the first is your legal due: the little pickle money for your
father's books and plenishing, which I have bought (as I have explained from the first) in
the design of re-selling at a profit to the incoming dominie. The other three are gifties that
Mrs. Campbell and myself would be blithe of your acceptance. The first, which is round,
will likely please ye best at the first off-go; but, O Davie, laddie, it's but a drop of water
in the sea; it'll help you but a step, and vanish like the morning. The second, which is flat
and square and written upon, will stand by you through