Off with the Old Love

He was impatient to reach his home, and glad to see the coachman and a
phaeton waiting, when the steamer touched the little jetty. The man raised
his hat with a pleasure there was no mistaking. "I came my ways doon on a
'may be,' sir," he said proudly, "I jist had a feeling o' being wanted
here. Whiles, thae feelings are as gude as a positive order. You'll be
come to stay, Mr. Allan, surely, sir. There'll be a sight o' birds in the
heather this year."

"My stay depends on this and that, Archibald. Is there any change round
Meriton?"

"Nane worth the praising, sir. We hae a new minister. I dinna think much
o' him."

"Not orthodox, I suppose."

"A puir body, sir, a puir body at a sermon. I like a gun and a minister to
shoot close. Dr. MacDonald is an awfu' scattering man. He'll be frae
Genesis to Revelations in the same discourse, sir."

They were passing between plantations of young larch; the great hills rose
behind them, the songs of a multitude of birds filled the warm, sweet air.
The horses tossed their heads, and lifted proudly their prancing feet.
Allan had a keen sense of the easy, swift motion through the balmy
atmosphere. As he leaned back against the comfortably cushioned vehicle,
he could not help contrasting the circumstances with the hoary
sea-shattering rocks of Fife, the tossing ocean, the tugging oars, and
the fisherman's open boat. He did not try to decide upon the merits of the
different situations; he simply realized the present, and enjoyed it.