Beautiful Just! by Lillian Beckwith

Author:Lillian Beckwith [Beckwith, Lillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447216865
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

‘What would the world be once bereft

Of wet and of wilderness? Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.’

I stood up. I had suggested to Erchy that an hour was a reasonable time for him to conclude negotiations about the gun and after an extra half hour to allow for the crofters’ indifference to clock time I started back towards the car. There was no sign of them so I sat down once again to admire the scenery while keeping a sharp eye on the cottage since I knew that if, when they came out to reconnoitre, I was not visible, they would simply go back into the house to continue drinking tea and gossiping until I made my presence felt. After another half hour of waiting I began to grow impatient. The purpose of my journey had after all been for me to collect my chickens and naturally I wanted to ensure that I did eventually reach the farmer’s house before it was time to start on the homeward journey. Apart from blowing the horn which would not only have been a breach of Highland courtesy but would have been a blasphemy in such surroundings I wondered how I could attract the attention of my companions without going to the house and so risk having to stay for a ‘strupak’. I suddenly recalled Hector’s method of attracting my attention when he was too shy to come near the house such as when I had guests staying with me. He simply used to take off his cap and fling it at the hens, scattering them in panic. The resulting cacophony would bring me hurrying to the door prepared to do battle with a maurauding dog or a flock of thieving hoody crows and usually I would be just in time to see Hector adjusting his hat on his head with all the aplomb of just having raised it in salutation while he stared at the hens with well simulated surprise. I never divulged that I was aware of the strategy but since it proved unfailingly effective I resolved to try it now. I was not wearing any sort of head covering but there was a small cushion in the car which I always used to support my back when driving and thinking it would make an excellent substitute I resolved to throw that. At the precise instant the cushion left my hand I glimpsed out of the corner of my eye the old man appearing round the gable end of the cottage. He was followed by Erchy, Hector and Morag and their varying expressions as they caught me in the act of hurling the cushion imprinted themselves on my memory. Erchy looked plainly startled. Hector contrived to look exaggeratedly indifferent and Morag and the old man stared at me with that strangely hunted look which, had they been devout papists, would have been accompanied by the precaution of crossing themselves.

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