IV
Donald was twenty-four and The Laird fifty-eight when the pairreturned from their frolic round the world--Donald to take up thisfather's labors, The Laird to lay them aside and retire to TheDreamerie and the books he had accumulated against this happyafterglow of a busy and fruitful life.
Donald's mother and sisters were at The Dreamerie the night the fatherand son arrived. Of late years, they had spent less and less of theirtime there. The Laird had never protested, for he could not blame themfor wearying of a little backwoods sawmill town like Port Agnew.
With his ability to think calmly, clearly, and unselfishly, he hadlong since realized that eventually his girls must marry; nowElizabeth was twenty-six and Jane twenty-eight, and Mrs. McKaye wasbeginning to be greatly concerned for their future. Since The Lairdhad built The Dreamerie in opposition to their wishes, they had spentless than six months in each year at Port Agnew. And these visits hadbeen scattered throughout the year. They had traveled much, and, whennot traveling, they lived in the Seattle house and were rather busysocially. Despite his devotion to his business, however, The Lairdfound time to spend at least one week in each month with them inSeattle, in addition to the frequent business trips which took himthere.
That night of his home-coming was the happiest The Laird had everknown, for it marked the culmination of his lifetime of labor anddreams. Long after his wife and the girls had retired, he and Donaldsat in the comfortable living-room, smoking and discussing plans forthe future, until presently, these matters having been discussedfully, there fell a silence between them, to be broken presently byThe Laird.
"I'm wondering, Donald, if you haven't met some bonny lass you'd liketo bring home to Port Agnew. You realize, of course, that there's roomon Tyee Head for another Dreamerie, although I built this one foryou--and her."
"There'll be no other house on Tyee Head, father," Donald answered,"unless you care to build one for mother and the girls. The wife thatI'll bring home to Port Agnew will not object to my father in myhouse." He smiled and added, "You're not at all hard to get alongwith, you know."
The Laird's eyes glistened.
"Have you found her yet, my son?"
Donald shook his head in negation.
"Then look for her," old Hector ordered. "I have no doubt that, whenyou find her, she'll be worthy of you. I'm at an age now when a manlooks no longer into the future but dwells in the past, and it's hardfor me to think of you, big man that you are, as anything save a weeladdie trotting at my side. Now, if I had a grandson--"
When, presently, Donald bade him good-night, Hector McKaye turned offthe lights and sat in the dark, gazing down across the moonlit Bightof Tyee to the sparks that flew upward from the stacks of his sawmillin Port Agnew, for they were running a night shift. And, as he gazed,he thrilled, with a fierce pride and a joy that was almost pain, inthe knowledge that he had reared a merchant prince for this, hisprincipality of Tyee.
Kindred of the Dust Page 4
