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046 - The Power of Darkeness · Whats Mines Mine

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  Speaker 1: Volume three, chapter twelve of What's Mine's Mine by George
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  Speaker 1: mac donald. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: The Power of Darkness He found his mother at breakfast,
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  Speaker 1: wondering what had become of him. Are you equal to
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  Speaker 1: a bit of bad news, mother, he asked, with a smile.
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  Speaker 1: The mother's thoughts flew instantly to Ian. Oh, it's nothing
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  Speaker 1: about Ian, said the chief, answering her look. Its expression changed.
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  Speaker 1: She hoped now it was some fresh obstacle between him
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  Speaker 1: and Mercy. No, Mother, it is not that either, said
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  Speaker 1: Alister again, answering her look with a sad one of
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  Speaker 1: his own, For the lack of his mother's sympathy was
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  Speaker 1: the sorest trouble he had. It is only that uncle's
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  Speaker 1: money is gone, all gone. She sat silent for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: gave a little sigh, and said, well, it will all
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  Speaker 1: be over soon. In the meantime, things are no worse
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  Speaker 1: than they were. His will be done. I should have
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  Speaker 1: liked to make a few friends with the Mammon of
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  Speaker 1: unrighteousness before we were turned out naked. We shall have plenty,
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  Speaker 1: answered the mother God himself, and a few beside. If
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  Speaker 1: you could make friends with the mammon, you can make
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  Speaker 1: friends without it. Yes, that is happily true. Ian says
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  Speaker 1: it was only a lesson for the wise and prudent
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  Speaker 1: with money in their pockets, a lesson suited to their
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  Speaker 1: limited reception. As they spoke, Nancy entered, Please, Laird, She said,
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  Speaker 1: Donald Shoemaker is wanting to see you. Tell him to
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  Speaker 1: come in, answered the Chief. Donald entered and stood up
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  Speaker 1: by the door with his bonnet under his arm, a
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  Speaker 1: little man with a puckered face, the puckers radiating from
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  Speaker 1: or centering in the mouth, which she seemed to untie
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  Speaker 1: like a money bag and pull open by means of
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  Speaker 1: a smile. Before he began to speak, the Chief shook
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  Speaker 1: hands with him and asked how he could serve him.
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  Speaker 1: Not be to your pleasure to know, macrud, said Donald, humbly,
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  Speaker 1: declining to sit, that I have received this day notice
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  Speaker 1: to quit my house and garden. The house was a
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  Speaker 1: turf cottage, and the garden might grow two bushels and
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  Speaker 1: a half of potatoes. Are you far behind with your rent?
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  Speaker 1: Not a quarter? Mac crude? Then what does it mean?
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  Speaker 1: It means, sir, that Strathrude is to be given to
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  Speaker 1: the Red deer, and the son of men have nowhere
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  Speaker 1: to lay his head. I am the first at your
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  Speaker 1: door with my sorrow. But before the day is over
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  Speaker 1: you will have here. He named four or five who
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  Speaker 1: had received like notice to quit. It is a sad business,
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  Speaker 1: said the chief, sorrowfully, is it law, sir? It is
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  Speaker 1: not easy to say what is law donell Certainly it
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  Speaker 1: is not gospel. As a matter of course, you will
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  Speaker 1: not be without shelter, so long as I may call
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  Speaker 1: stone or turf mine. But things are looking bad. Things
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  Speaker 1: as well as souls, are in God's hands. However, I
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  Speaker 1: learn from the new men on the hills, resumed Donald,
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  Speaker 1: that the new lairds have conspired to exterminate us. They
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  Speaker 1: have discovered, apparently that the earth was not made for man,
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  Speaker 1: but for rich men and beasts. Here the little man paused,
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  Speaker 1: and his insignificant face grew an expression grand. But the
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  Speaker 1: day of the Lord will come, he went on as
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  Speaker 1: a thief in the night. Vengeance is his, and he
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  Speaker 1: will know where to give many stripes and where few.
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  Speaker 1: What would you have us do, Laird, I will go
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  Speaker 1: with you to the village. No, if you please, sir,
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  Speaker 1: better men will be at your door presently tout the
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  Speaker 1: same question, for they will do nothing without the mac
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  Speaker 1: crud We are no more on your land. Great is
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  Speaker 1: our sorrow, Chief, but we are of your blood. You
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  Speaker 1: are our lord, and your will is ours. You have
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  Speaker 1: been a nursing father to us. Mac crud I fain
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  Speaker 1: would be answered the Chief. They will want to know
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  Speaker 1: whether these strangers have the right to turn us out,
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  Speaker 1: and if they have not the right to seize, whether
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  Speaker 1: we have not the right to resist. If you would
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  Speaker 1: have us fight and will head us, we will fall
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  Speaker 1: to a man, for fall we must. We cannot think
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  Speaker 1: to stand before the red coats. No, no, dunneal. It
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  Speaker 1: is not a question of the truth that we should
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  Speaker 1: be bound to die for. Of course, it is only
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  Speaker 1: our rights that are concerned, and they are not worth
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  Speaker 1: dying for That would be mere pride and denial of God,
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  Speaker 1: who is fighting for us. At least, so it seems
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  Speaker 1: at the moment to me some of us would fain
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  Speaker 1: fight and have it done with. Sir. The Chief could
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  Speaker 1: not help smiling with pleasure at the little man's warlike readiness.
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  Speaker 1: He knew it was no empty boast. What there was
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  Speaker 1: of him was good stuff. You have a wife and children. Dunnell,
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  Speaker 1: he said, what would become of them if you fell?
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  Speaker 1: My sister was turned out in the cold spring, answered Donell,
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  Speaker 1: and died in Glen Carveu. It would be better to
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  Speaker 1: die together, But Donell, none of yours will die of cold.
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  Speaker 1: And I can't let you fight, because the wives and
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  Speaker 1: children would all come on my hands, and I should
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  Speaker 1: have too many for my meal. No, we must not fight.
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  Speaker 1: We may have a right to fight, I do not know,
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  Speaker 1: but I am sure we have at least the right
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  Speaker 1: to abstain from fighting. Don't let us confound right and duty, Donell.
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  Speaker 1: Neither in thing nor in word, will not the law
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  Speaker 1: help us. Mac grude. The law is such a slow coach.
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  Speaker 1: Our enemies are so rich, and the lawyers have little
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  Speaker 1: love of righteousness. Most of them would see the dust
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  Speaker 1: on our heads to have the picking of our bones stick,
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  Speaker 1: nor stone would be left us before anything came of it.
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  Speaker 1: But sir, said Donell, is it the part of brave
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  Speaker 1: men to give up their rights? No man can take
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  Speaker 1: from us our rights, answered the chief. But any man
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  Speaker 1: rich enough may keep us from getting the good of them.
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  Speaker 1: I say again, we are not bound to insist on
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  Speaker 1: our rights. We may decline to do so, and that
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  Speaker 1: way leave them to God to look after for us.
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  Speaker 1: God does not always give men their rights, Sir, I
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  Speaker 1: don't believe he cares about our small matters. Nothing that
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  Speaker 1: God does not care about can be worth our caring about.
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  Speaker 1: But Donald, how dare you say what you do? Have
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  Speaker 1: you lived to all eternity, how do you know what
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  Speaker 1: you say? God does care for our rights. A day
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  Speaker 1: is coming, as you have just said, when He will
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  Speaker 1: judge the oppressors of their brethren. We shall all be
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  Speaker 1: dead and buried long before then. As he pleases. Donald,
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  Speaker 1: he is my chief. I will have what he wills,
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  Speaker 1: not what I should like a thousand years. I will
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  Speaker 1: wait for my rights. If he chooses, I will trust
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  Speaker 1: him to do splendidly for me. No, I will have
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  Speaker 1: no other way than my chiefs. He will set everything straight.
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  Speaker 1: He must be right, sir. Only I can't help wishing
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  Speaker 1: for the old times when a man could strike a
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  Speaker 1: blow for himself. With all all who came Alister held
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  Speaker 1: similar talk. For though they were not all so warlike
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  Speaker 1: as the Cobbler, they keenly felt the wrong that was
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  Speaker 1: done them, and would mostly but for a doubt of
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  Speaker 1: its rectitude, have opposed force with force, it would at
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  Speaker 1: least bring their case before the country. The case is
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  Speaker 1: before a higher tribunal, answered the laird. And one's country
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  Speaker 1: is no incarnation of justice. How could she be made
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  Speaker 1: up mostly of such as do not love fair play
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  Speaker 1: except in the abstract or for themselves. The wise thing
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  Speaker 1: is to submit to wrong. It is in ordering our
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  Speaker 1: own thoughts and our own actions that we have first
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  Speaker 1: to stand up for the right. Our business is not
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  Speaker 1: to protect ourselves from our neighbor's wrong, but our neighbor
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  Speaker 1: from our wrong. This is to slay evil the others
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  Speaker 1: to make it multiply. A man who would pull out
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  Speaker 1: even a mote from his brother's eye must first pull
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  Speaker 1: out the beam from his own eye. Must be righteous
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  Speaker 1: against his own selfishness. That is the only way to
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  Speaker 1: wound the root of evil. He who teaches his neighbor
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  Speaker 1: to insist on his rights is not a teacher of righteousness.
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  Speaker 1: He who, by fulfilling his own duties, teaches his neighbor
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  Speaker 1: to give every man the fair play he owes him,
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  Speaker 1: is a fellow worker with God. But although not a
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  Speaker 1: few of the villagers spoke in wrath and counseled resistance.
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  Speaker 1: Not one of them rejoiced in the anticipation of disorder.
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  Speaker 1: Heartily did Rob of the angels insist on peace. But
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  Speaker 1: his words had the less force that he was puny
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  Speaker 1: in person, and although capable of great endurance, unnoted for
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  Speaker 1: deeds of strength. Evil birds carried the words of natural
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  Speaker 1: and righteous anger to the ears of the new laird.
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  Speaker 1: No good birds bore the words of appeasement. He concluded
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  Speaker 1: after his kind that their chief countenanced a determined resistance
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  Speaker 1: on all sides. The horizon was dark about the remnant
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  Speaker 1: of Clundrud. Poorly as they lived in Strathrud. They had
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  Speaker 1: no place else where they could live at all. Separated
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  Speaker 1: and so disabled from making common cause against want, they
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  Speaker 1: must perish. But their horizon was not heaven, and God
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  Speaker 1: was beyond it. It was a great comfort to the
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  Speaker 1: chief that, in the matter of his clan, his mother
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  Speaker 1: agreed with him altogether to the last penny of their having.
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  Speaker 1: They must help their people. Those who feel as if
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  Speaker 1: the land were their own do fearful wrong to their
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  Speaker 1: own souls. What grandest opportunities of growing divine they lose
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  Speaker 1: instead of being man nobles, leading a sumptuous life until
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  Speaker 1: it no longer looks sumptuous. They might be God nobles,
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  Speaker 1: saviors of men, yielding themselves to and for their brethren.
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  Speaker 1: What friends might they not make with the mammon of unrighteousness?
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  Speaker 1: Instead of passing hence into a region where no doors
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  Speaker 1: no arms will be open to them. Things are ours,
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  Speaker 1: that we may use them for all, sometimes that we
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  Speaker 1: may sacrifice them. God had but one precious thing, and
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  Speaker 1: gave that the chief. Although he saw that the proceedings
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  Speaker 1: of mister Palmer and mister Brander must have been determined
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  Speaker 1: upon while his relation to Mercy was yet undeclared, could
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  Speaker 1: not help imagining how differently it might have gone with
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  Speaker 1: his people had he been married to Mercy and in
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  Speaker 1: a good understanding with her father. Had he crippled his
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  Speaker 1: reach toward men by the narrowness of his conscience toward God,
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  Speaker 1: So long as he did what seemed right, he must
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  Speaker 1: regret no consequences, even for the sake of others. God
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  Speaker 1: would mind others as well as him. Every sequence of right,
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  Speaker 1: even to the sword and fire, are God's care. He
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  Speaker 1: will justify himself in the eyes of the true Nor
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  Speaker 1: had the judgment of the false. One thing was clear
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  Speaker 1: that it would do but harm to beg of mister
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  Speaker 1: Palmer any pity for his people. It would but give
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  Speaker 1: zest to his rejoicing and iniquity. Something, nevertheless, must be
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  Speaker 1: determined and speedily, for winter was at hand. The Macruid
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  Speaker 1: had to consider not only the immediate accommodation of the ejected,
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  Speaker 1: but how they were to be maintained. Such was his
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  Speaker 1: difficulty that he began to long for such news from
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  Speaker 1: En as would justify in exodus from their own country,
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  Speaker 1: not the less a land of bondage to a home
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  Speaker 1: in the wilderness. But ah, what would then the land
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  Speaker 1: of his fathers, without its people be to him? It
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  Speaker 1: would be no more worthy the name of land, no
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  Speaker 1: longer fit to be called a possession. He knew then
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  Speaker 1: that the true love of the land is one with
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  Speaker 1: the love of its people. To live on it after
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  Speaker 1: they were gone would be like making a home of
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  Speaker 1: the family mausoleum. The rich pant after the dust of
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  Speaker 1: the earth on the head of the poor. But what
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  Speaker 1: would any land become without the poor in it? The
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  Speaker 1: poor are blessed because by their poverty they are open
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  Speaker 1: to divine influences. They are the buckets set out to
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  Speaker 1: catch the reign of heaven. They are the salt of
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  Speaker 1: the earth. The poor are to be always with a nation,
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  Speaker 1: for its best blessing, or for its condemnation and ruin.
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  Speaker 1: The chief saw the valleys desolate of the men readiest
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  Speaker 1: and ablest to fight the battles of his country. For
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  Speaker 1: the sake of greedy, low minded fellows. The summons of
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  Speaker 1: her war pipes would be heard in them no more,
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  Speaker 1: or would sound in vain among the manless rocks. From
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  Speaker 1: Shilin cottage or Klochan would spring no kilded warriors with
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  Speaker 1: battle response. The red deer in the big sheep had
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  Speaker 1: taken the place of men over countless miles of mountain
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  Speaker 1: and moore and strath. His heart bled for the sufferings
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  Speaker 1: and wrongs of those whose ancestors died to keep the
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  Speaker 1: country free that was now expelling their progeny. But the
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  Speaker 1: vengeance had begun to gather. Though neither his generation nor
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  Speaker 1: ours has seen at break. It must be that offenses come,
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  Speaker 1: but woe unto them by whom they come. End of
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  Speaker 1: Volume three, chapter twelve, recording by him A Mary