"'An' she's sae bonnie,' would Willie Robertson add with a sigh.
'I would na' covet the wealth o' the hale world an she were mine.'
"Willie was a fine active young man, who bore an excellent
character, and his comrades thought it very likely that Willie was
to be the fortunate man.
"Robertson was the youngest son of a farmer in the neighbourhood.
He had no land of his own, and he was one of a very large family.
From a boy he had assisted his father in working the farm for their
common maintenance; but after he took to looking at Jeanie Burns at
kirk, instead of minding his prayers, he began to wish that he had
a homestead of his own, which he could ask Jeanie and her
grandfather to share. "He made his wishes known to his father.
The old man was prudent. A marriage with Jeanie Burns offered no
advantages in a pecuniary view. But the girl was a good honest
girl, of whom any man might be proud. He had himself married for
love, and had enjoyed great comfort in his wife.
"'Willie, my lad,' he said, 'I canna' gi'e ye a share o' the farm.
It is ower sma' for the mony mouths it has to feed. I ha'e laid by
a little siller for a rainy day, an' this I will gi'e ye to win a
farm for yersel' in the woods o' Canada. There is plenty o' room
there, an' industry brings its ain reward. If Jeanie Burns lo'es
you, as weel as yer dear mither did me, she will be fain to follow
you there.'
"Willie grasped his father's hand, for he was too much elated to
speak, and he ran away to tell his tale of love to the girl of his
heart. Jeanie had long loved Robertson in secret, and they were not
long in settling the matter. They forgot in their first moments of
joy that old Saunders had to be consulted, for they had determined
to take the old man with them. But here an obstacle occurred of
which they had not dreamed. Old age is selfish, and Saunders
obstinately refused to comply with their wishes. The grave that
held the remains of his wife and son was dearer to him than all
the comforts promised to him by the impatient lovers in that far
foreign land. Jeanie wept - but Saunders, deaf and blind, neither
heard nor saw her grief, and, like a dutiful child, she breathed
no complaint to him, but promised to remain with him until his
head rested upon the same pillow with the dead.
"This was a sore and great trial to Willie Robertson, but he
consoled himself for his disappointment with the thought that
Saunders could not live long, and that he would go and prepare a
place for his Jean, and have everything ready for her reception
against the old man died.
"'I was a cousin of Willie's,' continued James, 'by the mither's
side, and he persuaded me to accompany him to Canada. We set sail
the first day of May, and were here in time to chop a small fallow
for a fall crop. Willie Robertson had more of this world's gear
than I, for his father had provided him with sufficient funds to
purchase a good lot of wild land, which he did in the township of
M - -, and I was to work with him on shares. We were one of the
first settlers in that place, and we found the work before us rough
and hard to our heart's content. But Willie had a strong motive for
exertion - and never did man work harder than he did that first year
on his bush-farm, for the love of Jeanie Burns.'
"We built a comfortable log-house, in which we were assisted by
the few neighbours we had, who likewise lent a hand in clearing
ten acres we had chopped for fall crop.
"All this time Willie kept up a constant correspondence with Jeanie
Burns, and he used to talk to me of her coming out, and his future
plans, every night when our work was done. If I had not loved and
respected the girl mysel' I should have got unco' tired o' the
subject.
"We had just put in our first crop of wheat, when a letter came
from Jeanie bringing us the news of her grandfather's death. Weel
I ken the word that Willie spak' to me when he closed that letter.
'Jamie, the auld man is gane at last - an', God forgi'e me, I feel
too gladsome to greet. Jeanie is willin' to come whenever I ha'e
the means to bring her out, an', hout man, I'm jist thinkin' that
she winna' ha'e to wait lang.'
"Good workmen were getting very high wages just then, and Willie
left the care of the place to me, and hired for three months with
auld Squire Jones. He was an excellent teamster, and could put his
hand to any sort of work. When his term of service expired he sent
Jeanie forty dollars to pay her passage out, which he hoped she
would not delay longer than the spring.
"He got an answer from Jeanie full of love and gratitude, but she
thought that her voyage might be delayed until the fall. The good
woman, with whom she had lodged since her parent's died, had just
lost her husband, and was in a bad state of health, and she begged
Jeanie to stay with her until her daughter could leave her service
in Edinburgh and come to take charge of the house. This person had
been a kind and steadfast friend to Jeanie in all her troubles, and
had helped her nurse the old man in his dying illness.
