Consider the Lilies by Iain Crichton Smith

Author:Iain Crichton Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent Publishers Group

TEN

The ss Hope lay at anchor in the bay, her sails rippled by a dull breeze. Mrs Scott was standing beside Iain. Seated on the ground a drunk man was singing to himself and cradling a bottle to gipsy cheeks, prominent and inflamed. A piper, his hands fingering the drones, was walking up and down not playing, in a proud corner all by himself, a plaid of red and green over his shoulder. There were a number of other people, less easily individualised, as well as Iain who, dressed in his navy-blue suit, was sitting on his trunk trying not to look nervous. Or perhaps he wasn’t nervous.

There had been stories about these ships, of their going off-course, of taking two or three months more than they should because of gales which they were unfitted to encounter, of outbreaks of dysentery because of bad food, of people herded together as tight as sardines, of emigrants being promised good work and having to fell trees and cultivate stony land at low rates of pay, of some being abandoned altogether, of exiles dying of exposure, of heart-break and fear, of heartless agents, of, in short … despair.

The drunk was singing to himself the words of a Gaelic song.

An Quebec chaidh mi air tìr ’s thug mi sgrìob feadh an àit.

(At Quebec I went ashore and I took a walk through the place.)

Fearann cragach agus chraobh, chan ’eil fraoch ann ri fàs.

(Stony land, and trees, there is no heather growing there.)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.