In Orchard Glen

by Mary Esther Miller MacGregor

  CHAPTER V

  "HEY! JOHNNIE COPE"

  After that visit to Craig-Ellachie Gavin was a new person to Christina.She was humiliated to remember that she had ever presumed to make funof him. He was good and kind and chivalrous, and Sandy was right whenhe declared that Gavin knew far more than half the fellows around thevillage who thought themselves so much smarter. Christina thoughtabout him often these soft slumbrous Autumn days and said to herselfthat, should he ever ask to walk home with her again, she would surelybe much kinder than she had been. And she could not help wonderingjust a little why he did not try.

  Indeed, had Gavin only known, he was very near gaining his heart'sdesire, when an unfortunate event snatched away his chance and tore himdown from the heights to which he had unconsciously risen.

  All the previous Winter and Summer the Temperance Society, which wasthe Presbyterian Choir, which was the Methodist Choir, had beenpractising strenuously for a concert. This weekly choir practice wasreally a community singing. Young and old, Presbyterians, Baptists andMethodists went to it, and Tremendous K. led them. There was an innercircle that sang on Sundays, in the Presbyterian Church in the morningand the Methodist Church in the evening. And they sang in the BaptistChurch, too, on each alternate Sunday afternoon. For the Baptistminister lived in Avondell, and gave Orchard Glen only two services amonth.

  So this Union Choir decided to give a grand concert under the auspicesof the Temperance Society to raise money to buy new chairs for thehall, and perhaps a new table if there was money enough. As the dateof the concert approached the practices were twice a week, and everyTuesday and Thursday, from eight o'clock till half-past nine,Tremendous K.'s big voice might be heard booming:

  "Watch your time, there! Sing up, can't you? Give her a lift! Don'tpull as if you was haulin' a stun boat up the hill!"

  It was just such drilling that had made the Orchard Glen choir famousover the whole countryside, and caused them to be in demand for teameetings all through the Winter.

  But the drilling was becoming wearisome, for the choir had beenpractising for a very long time indeed. The date of the concert hadbeen set again and again, and on every occasion some other affairinterfered.

  After many vicissitudes the date had been finally settled for theevening of the first of October, and no sooner was it set, and set forthe twentieth time, too, than the Methodist minister announced a weekof special meetings at his church as there was an Evangelist availableat that date!

  This was a serious affair and the Methodists in the choir were forhaving another postponement.

  "When's the concert to be?" asked Willie Brown one evening, as theytook a rest, and a paper bag of candy was passed round from Marmaduke.

  "Haven't you been told straight ahead for a month that it's the firstof October!" cried Tremendous K. in his most tremendous voice, "andit's not goin' to be a minute later, neither!"

  "That's the first night of the special meetings in our church," put inMinnie Brown, sharply, "and father wouldn't think of letting us come."

  Tremendous K. scowled. "Looky here," he declared, "we've been puttingoff this here concert for some dog fight or another for about twoyears, and I don't care if King George the Third was goin' to havespecial meetin's right in the hall that night, we're goin' to have thatconcert!"

  Tremendous K. was exceedingly loyal to both King and country, but hecould never remember which George it was that occupied the throne, andhad no notion of suggesting that one should rise from the dead.

  "You don't call special services in a church a dogfight, I hope," putin Tilly Holmes's father, his eyebrows bristling. Mr. Holmes was aBaptist and had no intention of attending the Methodist meetings, buthe felt he ought to stand for the principle of the thing, especially asTremendous K. was a Presbyterian.

  "I never said nothing of the sort!" denied the choir leader hotly,being himself a bit troubled in his conscience. "But what I do say isthat we've put off this thing so that it can't be put off no longer ifit's to be sung before the crack o' doom! The concert's on the firstof October, or not at all. Here! all turn to page thirty-four, theopening chorus, 'All's Well.' Everybody, whoop her up, now!"

  That was the beginning of the trouble; the next evening the Browns andseveral other good Methodists were not at practice and neither were theHolmeses. Mr. Wylie, the Methodist minister, went to Mr. Sinclairabout it and Mr. Sinclair said it was no more a Presbyterian affairthan a Methodist. And the Baptist minister stood aloof and said healways knew these union affairs would never bring anything but trouble.

  The thinned ranks of the choir closed up, though the loss of theBrowns, who were all musical, was a staggering blow. Tilly Holmescried so hard that her father had to let her come back, and two orthree of the less faithful Methodists returned, pending the finaldecision in regard to the date. And Tremendous K. went on, stubbornlywaving his baton in the face of the whole Methodist congregation.

  No serious trouble might have arisen, however, had not the two who werealways a source of dissension in the village, put their wicked headstogether. To be quite fair, for once in their lives, Trooper Tom andMarmaduke were without guile when they decided to invite old PiperLauchie McDonald from Glenoro to come and play at the concert. Theywere merely actuated by the pure motive of making the entertainmentmore attractive than the Methodist gathering, with, perhaps, thesubconscious thought that it was a question if Old Tory Brown, who wasScotch, even if he were a Methodist, could resist leaving a merepreaching to hear a real Piper. The two were willing to bet almostanything on the superior attractions of the music, Duke offering to putup his wooden leg against Trooper's Mounted Police Medal.

  Tremendous K. was not very enthusiastic when, with great diplomacy,Marmaduke suggested the bagpipes as an addition to the programme. TheHendersons were very rigid concerning certain worldly amusements, and aPiper was always associated with dancing and kindred foolishness. Whenit was made clear that Lauchie would draw a crowd, which a Piper alwaysdid, he yielded, and Marmaduke and Trooper borrowed The Woman's car,and whirled away up over the hills to Glenoro one evening and invitedLauchie to play in Orchard Glen on the night of the big concert.

  Christina had been faithfully attending all the practices. She was nota real choir member, but Tremendous K. said he couldn't get up aconcert without at least one Lindsay in it, and she was the only oneavailable. For John could not sing, Mary had lost interest ineverything outside Port Stewart, and Ellen was too busy with thetrousseau to attend to anything else.

  On the evening of the last rehearsal, as Christina went down the hillwith a crowd of her girl friends, Tilly met them in great excitement.

  "Wallace Sutherland's come home," she announced, breathlessly. "TheDoctor met him in town with his car, and he's going to stay a weekbefore he goes back to college. Mrs. Sutherland told Mrs. Sinclair andshe told ma."

  This was surely interesting news. Wallace Sutherland had not been inOrchard Glen for any length of time, since he was a little boy and wentto the public school. He was attending a University over in the greatUnited States, and spent his holidays with the wealthy uncle who waspaying his college bills. Mrs. Sutherland often went to Boston tovisit him and her rich brother, but Wallace had spent very little timein the old home. Folks said that his mother was afraid of his becomingfamiliar with the country folk and so kept him out of the way.

  Christina laughed at Tilly and her news. The storekeeper's daughterwas always in a high state of excitement over some wonderful happeningin Orchard Glen, while Christina was prepared to testify that nothingat all ever happened within the ring of its sleepy green hills, and sheimmediately forgot all about Mr. Wallace Sutherland.

  The next evening was the date of the concert, and excitement ran high.When Trooper and Marmaduke had visited the Piper they had madeelaborate arrangements for his entry into Orchard Glen. He was to staywith old Peter McNabb, a relative who lived about half-a-mile above thevillage, until the hour for the concert had almost arrived, then
he wasto come sweeping down the hill, when the crowds were gathering, andmarch playing into the hall where he would open the proceedings. Andif he did not sweep all the folks around the Methodist church back intothe hall with him, then Trooper had missed his guess. Piper Lauchiewas a true Highlander, with a love of the dramatic, and he fell in withthe arrangements with all his heart. The Dunn farm was just next toOld Peter's house, so early in the afternoon Trooper went over andascertained to his satisfaction that Lauchie was there, with his pipesin fine tune. The two old men were smoking and telling tales ofpioneer days on the shores of Lake Simcoe, with as much zest as if theywere relating them for the first time instead of the forty-first. So,with everything so well arranged, there was seemingly no cause foranxiety, and not the most pessimistic Methodist could have prophesieddisaster.

  The evening of October first was bright and warm, and at an early hourthe rival crowds began to gather; the worshippers and the revellers,Mr. Wylie designated them in a remark made afterwards to Mr. Sinclair,a remark the Presbyterian minister did not forget in a few weeks. TheMethodist church, which was up on the slope of the hill, began to fillslowly and the Temperance hall, down near the store corner, rapidly. Agroup of young men lingered at the door of the hall with their usualinability to enter a meeting until a few minutes after the hour ofstarting. There was also a small group at the door of the Methodistchurch farther up the hill. They were not the customary loungers, buta small self-appointed committee of the Methodist fathers on theoutlook for any of the flock who might stumble into the pitfall of theTemperance hall on their way to church.

  The visiting minister drove into the village, passed the hall in awhirl of dust, and hurried into the church. Dusk was falling, thelamps were lit in both gathering places and the light shone from thewindows.

  It was now on the eve of eight o'clock, in another moment the meetingon the hill would open, and the Piper had not yet appeared. Marmadukeand Trooper, consulting in the middle of the street where there was aview of the hill up as far as the Lindsay gate, were growing anxious.It would be quite too bad if, after all their plans, the Piper shouldfail them. Trooper was for going after the missing musician, but Dukecounselled patience. He fancied he saw a figure on the hill now andany moment they might hear the pipes.

  But eight o'clock came, the group of watchers on the hill moved inside,and the strains of a hymn came through the open door and windows of theMethodist church. There was no hope of catching any stray sheep in thePiper's net now!

  Tremendous K. came rushing out of the hall declaring that they couldnot wait any longer, the boys were beginning to stamp and yell for theprogramme, and Dr. McGarry was as mad as a wet hen. Then Dr. McGarry,who was chairman, came right on his heels, his watch in his hand,demanding what in common sense and thunder they meant by holding up themeeting this way. That confounded piper of theirs could play for anhour after he got here if he wanted to, but were they going to sit upall night waiting for him? He had been called to go and see old GrannyAnderson just as soon as this show was over, and she wouldn't be likelyto put off dying until that Piper appeared as if he was Gabriel withhis trump!

  The Doctor was a hard man to argue with when he was angry, inasmuch ashe did not stop talking at all, and so there was no chance to stateyour case. So it was decided that the Choir had better sing theopening chorus, while Trooper would go up the hill and hasten thePiper's tune if possible, Duke remaining on guard at the door to seethat he did not enter during the rendering of some other selection.

  So Tremendous K. and the Doctor dashed back into the hall and Trooperran up the village street. But before he had come to the bridge acrossthe stream, he discerned a figure appearing out of the dusk on thehillside and the next moment, high, clear and thrilling sounded theopening skirl of the pipes! Trooper gave a whoop of joy, and ran backwaving the good news which had already arrived on the evening breeze.Marmaduke sent one of the boys flying into the Hall to see if theprogramme would not wait another moment, but he was just a second toolate. The opening chorus, "All's Well," was started, and already theycould hear Joanna's voice on the high notes.

  "Never mind," cried Marmaduke as Trooper ran up breathless, "he'll comein as neat as a tack right after this piece, and we couldn't a' got anymore into the Hall anyway," he added gloatingly, "even if he'd beenplayin' all day."

  He was certainly playing now, and most enticingly. It was thatteasing, alluring lilt, "Tullochgorum," and Trooper went out into themiddle of the road and danced the Highland Fling to it, while Marmaduketook his place opposite, hopping about in a cloud of dust, on his onefoot and holding up his peg leg in a very elegant fashion as a daintyyoung lady might hold her train.

  "Say, he'll bust the church windows when he's passin'!" cried Trooper,stopping to listen to the music soaring louder and clearer. The nightwas warm, and the doors and windows of the church were all wide openand Piper Lauchie was making as much noise as a company of massed bandsmarching past.

  "It's turned out better than we intended," said Marmaduke in improperglee. "Why didn't we think of it?"

  Now, Piper Lauchie had not been in Orchard Glen that summer, and thelast occasion upon which he had visited the village had been on his wayhome from a picnic, under rather merry circumstances which left hismemory of the place pleasantly hazy. Trooper had cautioned him tomarch right into the hall on his arrival, explaining that the buildingwas on his left hand side after he crossed the bridge, and that hecould not miss it for it would be all lit up and he and Marmaduke wouldbe at the door to see him march triumphantly inside. So far he hadfollowed his instructions to the letter. He tuned up half way down thehill and came marching across the bridge, and then the Dreadful Thinghappened.

  It was almost dark by this time and surely neither the Piper norTrooper nor Marmaduke was to blame that the Methodist church should beplaced on the left hand side after you crossed the bridge, and that itshould be all lit up so that the Piper could not miss it! And he didnot miss it, either. The sight of the rows of heads against thewindows, all in the attitude of waiting, inspired the musician togreater effort. He shifted his chanter a bit, put more wind into it,and burst into a gayer and faster tune, and when he reached the bit ofsidewalk opposite the door of the Methodist church, he whirled about,with a flirt of his kilt and a flip of his plaid, swept up the steps,through the open door and went screaming up the church aisle right tothe pulpit steps, fairly raising the roof to the tune of "Hey! JohnnieCope, are ye waukin' yet?"

  And all the while this terrible mishap was occurring, the Choir in thehall farther down the street, just at the moment when all was going asill as human affairs could go, was singing in false security, "All'sWell!"

  When Trooper and Duke, waiting admiringly in the middle of the road,saw their charge suddenly disappear into the pitfall of the Methodistchurch, they stood paralysed for one dreadful moment, like men who hadseen the earth open and swallow everything upon which they had settheir hearts. Then Trooper gave a terrific yell, the war whoop he hadlearned on the prairie, and turned and looked at his companion indisaster. Duke was beyond uttering even a yell. He collapsed silentlyupon the grass by the roadside, and rolled back and forth in a kind ofconvulsion, while Trooper staggered to the fence and hung limply overit like a wet sack. And all the while inside the hall higher andstronger and more confident, swelled the words of the chorus indreadful irony, "All's Well, All's Well!"

  Nobody could ever quite explain how the Piper got ejected from thechurch and transferred to the hall where he belonged. There were somany conflicting reports.

  Some said that Mr. Wylie gave him a solemn talking to upon the error ofhis position, and the visiting minister upon the error of his ways,being under the impression that he and old Peter had been drinking,which, strange to say, was really not the case. Others declared thatthe Piper did not stop playing long enough for any one to speak, butwent roaring up one aisle to come screeching down the other. No oneseemed quite clear on the subject, for the Methodists were too a
ngry tospeak of the affair coherently and for a long time it was not safe toask them about it.

  But upon one part of the history all eye-witnesses, except the Piperhimself, were agreed, and that was that Mrs. Johnnie Dunn left her seatand chased the Piper down the church aisle with her umbrella. TheWoman would have preferred to attend the concert, though she was aMethodist, but Trooper's lively interest in it had decided her toadhere to her church, and she was not slow to take this opportunity ofshowing her disapproval of his choice.

  Whatever happened, Piper Lauchie did finally reach the hall, but he wastoo angry to either play or speak. There was no sign of the committeethat was to meet him, for Trooper and Marmaduke had fled down the darkalley between the hall and the blacksmith shop and were lying in an oldshed, trying to keep from shouting.

  Gavin Grant had arrived late, after a very busy day, and with a littlegroup of boys had also witnessed the catastrophe. Gavin stepped up tothe old man to apologise and explain, but Lauchie shoved him aside andmarched noisily into the hall, ready to murder any one who stood in hisway.

  He burst in just as Dr. McGarry arose and announced:

  "Ladies and gentlemen, the next item on this programme is----"

  And Piper Lauchie shouted from the back of the building in a high thinyell:

  "The next item will be that some one will be hafing his brains knockedout, whatefer!"

  And he tramped straight up the aisle to the platform, his old plaidstreaming from his shoulders, his pipes held like a drawn claymore.

  The Chairman, like the rest of the crowd, had been listening to "All'sWell" and did not dream that things had been going otherwise. He stoodfor a moment staring at the enraged Piper and then Gavin, who had justslipped into his seat in the choir, leaned forward, and touching theChairman's elbow, strove to explain.

  "Mr. McDonald went to the wrong meeting," he whispered, but he got nofarther.

  Old Lauchie slammed his pipes down on the Chairman's table, upsetting aglass of water and a big bouquet of flowers from Craig-Ellachie, andturned upon Gavin, his fists clenched.

  "I would be going to the wrong meeting, would I?" he shouted, and Gavinbacked away hastily. The old man pursued him hotly.

  "It would be you and your fell tribe that would be sending me to theMessodis meeting house!" he shouted. "Ta Messodis," he repeated inwithering scorn, "I'll Messodis you----"

  Gavin was continuing to back away in a most ungallant fashion, till hegot to the wall and there was no means of escape, when rescue came froman unexpected quarter.

  Just at the end of the front row of seats, where the pursuit came to ahalt, Wallace Sutherland was sitting with his mother. He had been thecentre of many admiring glances, especially from the girls. And indeedhe was a fine-looking young fellow and it was no wonder that his unclewas so proud of him and his mother so afraid. He was hugely enjoyingthe Piper's tumultuous entry, and his black eyes were dancing withdelight, when the old man, his red blazing eyes fixed upon his supposedenemy, was backing Gavin into a corner.

  But Mrs. Sutherland, for all that Orchard Glen pronounced her proud andcold, was a timid, gentle woman, and Lauchie's appearance filled herwith panic.

  "Oh, Wallace, my dear," she whispered in alarm. "Oh, how dreadful.He's going to strike him----"

  Wallace was very loath to put an end to the fun, but he rose andtouched the enraged Piper on the arm.

  "Mr. McDonald," he whispered tactfully, "my uncle, Dr. McGarry, is theChairman and he,--he's just a little bit nervous. Won't you get yourpipes and play for us? He doesn't know what to do next, and we've beenwaiting anxiously to hear you."

  Wallace Sutherland's charming manner seldom failed him and it did notnow. The Piper looked at him and the fierce rage died from his eyes.The clenched fists dropped to his side and Gavin slipped into a seat.Wallace nodded to his uncle and Dr. McGarry hastily announced, withoutany embarrassing explanations, that the Piper had been unavoidablydelayed but that he was now ready to favour them with a selection forwhich they were all so anxiously waiting.

  So Lauchie shouldered his instrument and took his place on theplatform. The storm was abating but there were still thunderings andoccasional flashes of lightning concerning the crass ignorance andstupidity of the people of Orchard Glen and Methodists the world over.

  "Come up to Glenoro and we'll be learning you manners," came rumblingout of the thunder cloud. "We'll be showing you how they treat a Piperthere."

  But by this time the pipes were beginning to scream their opening note,and Lauchie was blowing his anger into the chanter. The tune rose on ashrill spiral and high and clear it poured forth the challenging notesof a fierce pibroch, the war song of the Clan McDonald. The playermarched back and forth across the platform keeping quick step to themad tune, that rose louder and faster and shriller at each step.

  The audience began to clap, to stamp, to cheer, and still the war cryof the McDonalds went screaming to the roof; and finally when the wallswere beginning to rock, and the women were becoming terrified, thePiper whirled down the aisle and swept out of the building on the hightide of his song. The young men in the back of the hall followed himin noisy hilarity, but he stopped for nobody. He went marchingstraight up the village street towards home, the defiant notes risingin a wild crescendo. And oh, how he blew with lungs of leather likefifty pipers together, when he was passing the Methodist church!

  Dr. McGarry called the audience to order with some difficulty, and therest of the performance went on quite decorously. And when the lastnotes of the pipes died away in the hills, Marmaduke and Troopercrawled from their hiding place and sat on the hall steps till theprogramme was over, holding each other up.

  "Gosh," whispered Marmaduke, wiping his eyes weakly. "Who'd 'a'thought that a McDonald from Glenoro wouldn't know a Methodist churchwhen he saw one?"

  "It was the sight o' the Temperance hall that turned his stomach,"lamented Trooper. "We might 'a' known he'd shy at it."

  The Piper played himself away up and out of Orchard Glen, vowingsolemnly, like the Minstrel Boy, that he would tear the cords of hisinstrument asunder ere they should sound again within the hearing ofthat traitorous community, a vow that old Lauchie was to live to seebroken, under very stirring circumstances.

  But there were other cords torn asunder in Orchard Glen by theunfortunate contingency of that fatal evening. The Hendersons and theBrowns, who had been lifelong friends, stopped speaking to each other;Mr. Sinclair and Mr. Wylie met on the most frigidly polite terms; theunion choir, which was the pride of Tremendous K.'s heart and the gloryof Orchard Glen, fell to pieces, and a line of demarkation was drawncarefully between the two denominations where so recently every one hadtalked about church union.

  Mrs. Johnnie Dunn did not allow whatever part her nephew and his chumhad in the affair to go unnoticed. She advertised it, and hinted thatperhaps the Piper was not so much to blame after all. Indeed the pastrecord of Trooper and Marmaduke afforded little weight in proving theirinnocence, and public suspicion fastened upon them. Neither of themtook any pains to establish their innocence; indeed, Trooper secretlywondered why they had never thought of planning the affair, and wasrather ashamed of his lack of enterprise.

  But both he and Marmaduke felt that The Woman pressed the case againstthem just a little too strongly.

  "We'll have to do something to make The Woman mind her own business,Troop," Marmaduke declared, as they sat by the roaring fire in thestore one chilly afternoon. "She'll ruin our innocent and harmlessreputations if we don't."

  So the two put their heads together to plan a just retribution, butbefore it could be made to fall, The Woman astonished every one by anentirely new enterprise. She packed her trunk, and leaving Marthy andTrooper to take care of themselves, she went away to spend the Winteron a visit to a sister in California.

  But to no one was the night of the concert such a great occasion as itwas to Christina. Wallace Sutherland went back to his studies the nextweek, but the vision of his handsome
smiling face and his gallantbehaviour remained vividly with her. She was filled with dismay at thecontrast Gavin Grant had presented to him that night. It did not dawnupon Christina's mind that Gavin would as soon have raised his hand toAuntie Elspie as to defend himself against poor old Piper Lauchie.Tilly had whispered that Gavin was scared, and the other girls, withJoanna's able assistance, emphasised the shameful fact. So when shesaw him after the concert, standing on the edge of the bar of lightthat streamed from the hall door, she slipped away as he turned towardsher and escaped with John in the darkness. But Gavin noticed her hasteand interpreted it aright.

  The Aunties sent a gay message by John, when he was over at theCraig-Ellachie threshing, to the effect that Elspie had broken off herengagement. She had heard that Piper Lauchie had taken to going to theMethodist church, and they had warned her that they would not abide aMethodist body in the family. But Christina could not joke about thePiper with Gavin, she felt he really must be humiliated, when, in fact,Gavin felt no more at fault than if he had backed out of the way of anenraged child and dodged his blows.

  But indeed Christina was giving him and his affairs very littlethought. Her Dream Knight had taken form, she even knew his name andhis station in life. And though he still rode gaily beyond the horizonshe could not but think of him and wonder when she might see him again.