DOI article:
Buchan, John: A Journey of Little Profit
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26392#0199
By John Buchan 195
cc ‘ Oh, my name is Stewart myself,’ says he, ‘ and all Stewarts
should be well acquaint.’
“ ‘True,’ said I, ‘though I don’t mind your face before. But
now I am here, I think you have a most gallant place, Mr.
Stewart.’
“‘Well enough. But how have you come to’t ? We’ve few
visitors.’
“ So I told him where I had come from, and where I was going,
and why I was forwandered at this time of night among the
muirs. He listened keenly, and when I had finished, he says
verra friendly-like, ‘ Then you’ll bide all night and take supper
with me. It would never be doing to let one of the clan go away
without breaking bread. Sit ye down, Mr. Duncan.’
“ I sat down gladly enough, though I own that at first I did not
half-like the whole business. There was something unchristian
about the place, and for certain it was not seemly that the man’s
name should be the same as my own, and that he should be so well
posted in my doings. But he seemed so well-disposed that my
misgivings soon vanished.
“So I seated myself at the table opposite my entertainer. There
was a place laid ready for me, and beside the knife and fork a
long horn-handled spoon. I had never seen a spoon so long and
queer, and I asked the man what it meant. ‘ Oh,’ says he, ‘ the
broth in this house is very often hot, so we need a long spoon to
sup it. It is a common enough thing, is it not ? ’
“ I could answer nothing to this, though it did not seem to me
sense, and I had an inkling of something I had heard about long
spoons which I thought was not good ; but my wits were not
clear, as I have told you already. A serving man brought me a
great bowl of soup and set it before me. I had hardly plunged
spoon intil it, when Mr. Stewart cries out from the other end :
‘ Now,
cc ‘ Oh, my name is Stewart myself,’ says he, ‘ and all Stewarts
should be well acquaint.’
“ ‘True,’ said I, ‘though I don’t mind your face before. But
now I am here, I think you have a most gallant place, Mr.
Stewart.’
“‘Well enough. But how have you come to’t ? We’ve few
visitors.’
“ So I told him where I had come from, and where I was going,
and why I was forwandered at this time of night among the
muirs. He listened keenly, and when I had finished, he says
verra friendly-like, ‘ Then you’ll bide all night and take supper
with me. It would never be doing to let one of the clan go away
without breaking bread. Sit ye down, Mr. Duncan.’
“ I sat down gladly enough, though I own that at first I did not
half-like the whole business. There was something unchristian
about the place, and for certain it was not seemly that the man’s
name should be the same as my own, and that he should be so well
posted in my doings. But he seemed so well-disposed that my
misgivings soon vanished.
“So I seated myself at the table opposite my entertainer. There
was a place laid ready for me, and beside the knife and fork a
long horn-handled spoon. I had never seen a spoon so long and
queer, and I asked the man what it meant. ‘ Oh,’ says he, ‘ the
broth in this house is very often hot, so we need a long spoon to
sup it. It is a common enough thing, is it not ? ’
“ I could answer nothing to this, though it did not seem to me
sense, and I had an inkling of something I had heard about long
spoons which I thought was not good ; but my wits were not
clear, as I have told you already. A serving man brought me a
great bowl of soup and set it before me. I had hardly plunged
spoon intil it, when Mr. Stewart cries out from the other end :
‘ Now,