Chapter 18

CADDAM--LOVE LEADING TO A RUPTURE.

Gavin told himself not to go near the mud house on the following
Monday; but he went. The distance is half a mile, and the time he
took was two hours. This was owing to his setting out due west to
reach a point due north; yet with the intention of deceiving none
save himself. His reason had warned him to avoid the Egyptian, and
his desires had consented to be dragged westward because they knew
he had started too soon. When the proper time came they knocked
reason on the head and carried him straight to Caddam. Here reason
came to, and again began to state its case. Desires permitted him
to halt, as if to argue the matter out, but were thus tolerant
merely because from where he stood he could see Nanny's doorway.
When Babbie emerged from it reason seems to have made one final
effort, for Gavin quickly took that side of a tree which is loved
of squirrels at the approach of an enemy. He looked round the
tree-trunk at her, and then reason discarded him. The gypsy had
two empty pans in her hands, For a second she gazed in the
minister's direction, then demurely leaped the ditch of leaves
that separated Nanny's yard from Caddam, and strolled into the
wood. Discovering with indignation that he had been skulking
behind the tree, Gavin came into the open. How good of the
Egyptian, he reflected, to go to the well for water, and thus save
the old woman's arms! Reason shouted from near the manse (he only
heard the echo) that he could still make up on it. "Come along."
said his desires, and marched him prisoner to the well.

The path which Babbie took that day is lost in blaeberry leaves
now, and my little maid and I lately searched for an hour before
we found the well. It was dry, choked with broom and stones, and
broken rusty pans, but we sat down where Babbie and Gavin had
talked, and I stirred up many memories. Probably two of those
pans, that could be broken in the hands to-day like shortbread,
were Nanny's, and almost certainly the stones are fragments from
the great slab that used to cover the well. Children like to peer
into wells to see what the world is like at the other side, and so
this covering was necessary. Rob Angus was the strong man who bore
the stone to Caddam, flinging it a yard before him at a time. The
well had also a wooden lid with leather hinges, and over this the
stone was dragged.

Gavin arrived at the well in time to offer Babbie the loan of his
arms. In her struggle she had taken her lips into her mouth, but
in vain did she tug at the stone, which refused to do more than
turn round on the wood. But for her presence, the minister's
efforts would have been equally futile. Though not strong,
however, he had the national