"Maybe ye wadna objec' to mak mention by name o' the toon nearest
to ye whan ye was at hame?" said the old man, and from his altered
manner and tone Cosmo felt he might reply.
"It was ca'd Muir o' Warlock," he answered.
"Lord, man! come into the hoose. Ye maun be sair in need o'
something to put intil ye! A' the gait frae Muir o' Warlock! A
toonsman o' my ain! Scot--lan' 's a muckle place--but Muir o'
Warlock! Guid guide's! Come in, man; come in!"
So saying he took the spade from Cosmo's hands, threw it down with
a contemptuous cast, and led the way towards the house.
The old man had a heart after all! Strange the power of that
comparatively poor thing, local association, to bring to light the
eternal love at the root of the being! Wonderful sign also of the
presence of God wherever a child may open eyes! This man's heart
was not yet big enough to love a Scotsman, but it was big enough to
love a Muir-o'-Warlock-man; and was not that a precious beginning?
--a beginning as good as any? It matters nothing where or how one
begins, if only one does begin! There are many, doubtless, who have
not yet got farther in love than their own family; but there are
others who have learned that for the true heart there is neither
Frenchman nor Englishman, neither Jew nor Greek, neither white nor
black--only the sons and daughters of God, only the brothers and
sisters of the one elder brother. There may be some who have
learned to love all the people of their own planet, but have not
yet learned to look with patience upon those of Saturn or Mercury;
while others there must be, who, wherever there is a creature of
God's making, love each in its capacity for love--from the
arch-angel before God's throne, to the creeping thing he may be
compelled to destroy--from the man of this earth to the man of some
system of worlds which no human telescope has yet brought within
the ken of heaven-poring sage.
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