the school is closed for the autumn holiday ... commonly called the tattie holiday here. macdonald has gone off to glasgow. the bigger boys and girls are gathering potatoes in the fields here, and i am driving the tattie digger. at dinnertime they come to the bothy and eat their bread; mrs. thomson gives them soup and coffee in the kitchen, but they bring their bowls over to my bothy. much of the fun has gone out of them; the constant bending makes them very tired, and they drop off to sleep very easily. janet and ellen lay in my bed all dinnertime yesterday and slept. occasionally a boy will sing a song that always crops up at tattie time:—
o! i'm blyde i'm at the tatties,
i'm blyde i'm at the tatties,
i'm blyde i'm at the tatties,
wi' auchteenpence a day!
blyde means glad, but there is but little gladness in the band that trudges up the rigs in the morning twilight.
jim jackson is sometimes in good form. he has taken on the swaying gait of the young ploughman; he hasn't got the pockets that are situated in the front of the trousers, but he shoves his hands down the inside instead, and he says: "ma goad, you lads, hurry up[pg 109] afore the boss comes roond wi' the digger again!" they call me the boss now; macdonald is the mester. they seldom mention the school at all; if they do it is to recall some incident that happened in my time. but already the memory of our happy days is becoming hazy; life is too interesting for children to recall memories.
to-day jim sat and gazed absently at my bothy fire.
"now, bairns," i said, "jim's got an idea. cough it up, jim."
"aw was thinkin' o' the tattie-digger," he said slowly; "it seems an awfu' roondaboot wye o' liftin' tatties. could we no invent a digger that wud hoal the tatties and gaither them at the same time?"
"laziness is the mother of invention," i remarked.
"but ... cud a machine no be invented?" he asked.
"you could have a sort o' basket," he went on, "that ceppit a' the tatties as they were thrown oot."
"dinna haver!" interjected janet, "it wud cep a' the stanes at the same time."
"if spuds were made o' steel," said jim, "ye cud draw them oot wi' a magnet."
"and if the sky fell you would catch larks," said i.
"if the sea dried up!" said ellen, and jim instantly forgot his patent tattie-digger.
"crivens! what a fine essay that wud[pg 110] mak! why did ye no gie us that for an essay?"
"take it on now," i suggested, but he ignored the suggestion.
"the mester gae me a book to read in the holidays," he said irrelevantly, "and it's called self help; it's a' aboot laddies that got on weel."
i ceased to listen to their talk. i thought of samuel smiles and his victorian ideals. the book is iniquitous nowadays; it is the bible of the individualist. get on! i'm afraid that smiles' idea of getting on is still popular in scotland; the country might well adapt the popular song "get out and get under," changing it to "get on or get under" and making it the national anthem of scotland.
i once compared self help with lorimer's letters of a self-made merchant to his son, and was struck by the similarity of the ideals. lorimer's book is an americanised self-help. smiles is slightly better. with him getting on means more than the amassing of wealth; it means gaining position, which being interpreted means returning to your native village with prosperous rotundity and a gold chain.
lorimer has no special interest in gold chains and symbols of wealth; he doesn't care a button for position. he preaches efficiency and power; to him the greatest achievement in life appears to be the packing of the maximum of pig into the minimum of tin in the minimum of time. a business friend of mine[pg 111] tells me that it is the greatest book america has produced. evidently it didn't require the lusitania incident to prove that america is a long-suffering nation.
jim was back to the subject of inventions again.
"aw read in a paper that there's a fortune waitin' for the man that can invent something to haud breeks up instead o' gallis's."
"ye cud hae buttons on the foot o' yer sark," suggested janet.
"aye," said jim scornfully, "and if a button cam off what wud haud up yer breeks?"
"public opinion ... in this righteous village," i murmured; "it's almost strong enough to hold up any pair of breeks, jim," but no one understood me.
"ye cud hae sticks up the side," said ellen, "and yer breeks wud stand up like fisherman's boots."
"and if ye wanted to bend?" demanded jim.
ellen shoved out her tongue at him.
"ye never said onything aboot bendin', and ye dinna need to bend onywye."
"what aboot when ye're gaitherin' tatties?" crowed jim.
ellen tossed her head.
"aw wasna thinkin' o' the sort o' man that gaithers tatties; aw was thinkin' o' gentlemen's breeks ... the kind o' breeks ye'll never hae, jim jackson."
jim sighed and gave me a look which i took to mean: "women are impossible when it[pg 112] comes to arguing." he thought for a time; then he looked up with twinkling eyes.
"aw've got it!"
"well?"
"do away wi' breeks a'-the-gether, and wear kilts."
"and what will ye do wi' yer hands?" put in fred findlay; "there's nae pooches in a kilt."
"goad, fred," said jim, "aw never thocht o' that; we'll just hae to wrastle on wi' oor breeks and oor gallis's."
"ye cud wear a belt," suggested janet.
"and gie mysel' pewmonia! no likely!"
"it's no pewmonia that ye get wearin' a belt," said janet, "it's a pendicitis."
"g'wa, lassie, what do you ken aboot breeks onywye?"
"aw ken mair than you do, jim jackson. for wan thing aw ken that it's no a subject ye shud speak aboot afore lassies. come on, ellen, we'll go ootside; the conversation's no proper."
jim glanced at me doubtfully.
"it was her that said that breeks cud be buttoned to yer sark!" he exclaimed. he jumped up and hastened to the door.
"janet broon," i heard him cry, "dinna you speak aboot sarks to me again; sarks is no a proper subject o' conversation for young laddies."
i think it was fletcher of saltoun who said that he didn't care who made a nation's laws[pg 113] if he made its ballads. to-night i feel that i don't care if macdonald hears the bairns' opinion of charles i. so long as i hear their opinion of sarks and breeks.
* * *
a trade union official delivered a lecture on labour aspirations in the village hall to-night. i was sadly disappointed. the man tried to make out that the interests of capital and labour are similar.
"we are not out to abolish the capitalist," he said; "all we want is a say in the workshop management. we have nothing to do with the way the employer conducts his business; we want to mind our own business. we want to see men paid a living wage; we want to see...." i ceased to be interested in what the man wanted to see. i fancy that he requires to see a devil of a lot before he is capable of guiding the trade unions.
why are these so-called leaders so poor in intellect? why are they so fearful of alienating the good opinion of the capitalist? if the trade union has any goal at all it surely is the abolition of the capitalist. the leaders crawl to the feet of capital and cry: "for the lord's sake listen to us! we won't ask much; we won't offend you in the least. we merely want to ask very deferentially that you will see that there is no unemployment after the war. we beseech you to let our stewards have a little say ... a very little say ... in the management of the shops. take your[pg 114] rent and interest and profit as usual; as usual we'll be quite content with what is left over."
if a bull had intelligence he would not allow himself to be led to the shambles. if the trade unions had intelligence they would not allow their paid leaders to lead them to the altar.
the lecturer had evidently been told that i was the only socialist in the village, and he called upon me to say a few words. i have no doubt that later he regretted calling upon me.
"the speaker is modest in his demands," i said. "he has told you what labour is asking for, and now i'll tell you what i think labour should ask for. labour's chief aim should be to make the trade unions blackleg proof. when they have roped in all the workers they will be able to command anything they like. they should then go to the state and say: 'we want to join forces with the state. capitalism is un-christlike, and wasteful, and we must destroy it. we propose to take over the whole concern ourselves; we propose to abolish rent, interest, and profit ... and wagery. at present we are selling our labour to the highest bidder, and in the process we are selling our souls along with our bodies. each industry will conduct its own business, not for profit but for social service; no shareholders will live on our labour; we shall give our members pay instead of wages.'
[pg 115]
"gentlemen, i call an organisation of this kind a guild, but you can call it what you like. it is the only organisation that will abolish wagery, that is, will prohibit labour from being a commodity obeying the laws of supply and demand."
"what about nationalisation of land and mines and railways?" said the official. "these are on our programme, and they will revolutionise industry."
"hand over the mines and the railways to the state," i said, "and you have state capitalism. you won't abolish wages; you'll buy the mines and railways, and you'll draw your wages from what is left over after the interest due to the late shareholders is paid."
"ah!" he interrupted, "you want to confiscate?"
"if necessary, certainly. we have conscripted life because the state required men to give their lives; why not conscript wealth in the same way? the state requires the wealth of the rich, not only for the purpose of paying for the war; it requires it to pay for the peace to come."
"control of industry by producers has always failed," he said. "the new statesman supplement on the control of industry proved this conclusively."
"of course it has always failed," i said. "flying always failed, but the aeroplane experimenters did not sit down and wail: 'it's absolutely no good; men have always failed[pg 116] to fly.' if the railway trade union got the offer of the whole railway system to-morrow to run as it pleased it would make a bonny hash of it. why? because management is a skilled business. but if the salaried railway officials had the vision to see that their interests lay with the men instead of with the masters, then you would find a difference. the trade unions without the salaried officials are useless.
"i read the supplement you mention. one of the causes of failure given was that the producers had an interest in the plant and they were always unwilling to scrap machinery in order to introduce better machines."
"that's quite true," he nodded.
"is it? why does bruce the linen manufacturer in the neighbouring town here scrap comparatively new machinery when better inventions come out? he has an interest in the plant, hasn't he? why then does he not stick to the old methods?"
"he knows that he will gain in the end."
"exactly. and a society of workers running their own business would not have the gumption to see that the new methods would be a gain in the end?"
"the fact remains that they have tried and failed," he said.
"that merely proves that the workers without their managers are hopeless," i said. "what can you expect from a section of the community that has never been educated? you can't make a man slave ten hours a day[pg 117] for a living wage and then expect him to have the organising ability of martin the cigar merchant, or the vision of gamage the universal provider. a rich merchant in london said to me when i asked him point blank if he always thought of his profits: 'profits be blowed! the great thing is the game of business!' i don't see any reason in the world why the manager of say the enfield cycle company should not be as energetic and as capable if he were managing a factory for the cycle guild."
"the workers would interfere with him," said the official; "every workman who had a grudge against him would try to get him put off the managership."
"lord!" i cried, "for a representative of labour you seem to have a poor opinion of the democracy you speak for! if that is your attitude to your fellow-workmen i quite understand your modest demands for labour. if the rank and file of the trade unions can't rise higher than squabbling about whether a manager should be sacked or not, the trade unions had better content themselves with the programme their leaders have arranged for them. they had better concentrate their attention on trifles like a minimum wage or an old age pension."
a disturbing thought comes to me to-night. democracy means rule by the majority ... and the majority is always wrong. the only comfort i can find lies in the thought that the[pg 118] majority of to-day represents the opinions of the minority of yesterday. democracy will always be twenty years behind its time.
* * *
to-day has been a very wet sunday. i did not get up till one o'clock. margaret came over about tea-time and invited me to sample some drop scones she had been making. she was in a skittish mood, and she began to turn my bothy upside down on the allegation that it was time for autumn cleaning. i ordered her to the door, and she sat down on my bed and laughed at me. i said that i would throw a drop scone at her head if it were not for the danger of shying weights about indiscriminately, and she threw my pillow at me. i rose from my chair and went to her.
"out you come, you besom!" i cried and i seized her by the shoulders. we struggled ... and i suddenly realised that as we paused for breath her face was very near mine. i threw my arms around her and kissed her straight on the lips. then slowly we parted and we stood looking at each other. her face had become very serious.
"you—you shouldn't have done that!" she gasped.
"why not?" i asked lamely.
she gazed at me wildly for a long moment; then she rushed from the room.
it happened ... and i don't believe in crying over spilt milk. if i had been a strong man it wouldn't have happened; if margaret[pg 119] had not been in that skittish mood it wouldn't have happened. carlyle says somewhere: "mighty events turn on a straw; the crossing of a brook decides the conquest of the world." mighty events! is this a mighty event? i have kissed many a girl. to me, no; but to margaret i fear that it is. it was most likely her first kiss since she became a woman. i feel very like alec d'urberville, the seducer of tess, to-night ... only i don't think i'll take religion as he did and try to lead margaret to salvation as he did tess. it suddenly strikes me that i am more like angel clare. he was an educated man learning farming; i am an educated man tending cattle. he fell in love with the dairymaid tess; i.... but have i fallen in love with anyone? in general i should say that when a man asks himself whether he is in love or not he is not in love. love over-rules the head; every marriage means a victory of heart over head. presumably the men who have no heads make the best lovers. hamlet could not love ophelia because he had a head; romeo loved juliet because he hadn't a head. the whole problem of h. g. wells' later novels lies in the fact that his men have heads. they are all analytical ... and the man who analyses himself always appears before the public as a selfish brute. the analytical man cannot make a martyr of himself; he is a weakling; he has his fun ... and he pays for it, but he makes a woman pay for it also.
[pg 120]
i suppose that in ancient times love was a simple thing. you desired a woman, and you hit her father on the head with a stone axe and carried her off to your cave. in the majority of cases it is a simple business yet; you don't knock your prospective father-in-law on the head with a hatchet; you take a filial interest in your prospective mother-in-law's rheumatics instead. when smith the shopwalker falls in love with nancy of the hat department his chief concern is to know how he is going to keep house on his salary. he never sits down of an evening saying to himself: "now, is nancy my soul-mate? is her sense of humour something like my own? may we not be absolutely incompatible in temperament?" smith hasn't the faintest idea what sort of man he is himself, and if you aren't disturbed by doubts about yourself you won't be disturbed with doubts about your future wife. i should guess that mr. and mrs. smith will live happily together ... if she is a passable cook.
i fear greatly that the introspective man is doomed to connubial misery. margaret likes to read penny novelettes, and she will probably take a fancy to charles garvice some day soon. she knows nothing about music or painting or literature. unless we are ragging each other we have not a single topic of common interest; we should certainly bore each other during the first-class honeymoon journey south.
then why in the name of thunder did i[pg 121] kiss her? i suppose that i kissed her because kissing is more elemental than thinking. when she had rushed out i was joyous in the realisation that her lips were sweet, that her neck was gloriously graceful, that her eyes were deep and wonderful. but now her physical charms have gone with her, and doubts crowd in upon me.
i wonder what she is thinking of! i know that she has no doubts about herself, but i fancy that she has her doubts about me. poor lassie ... and well she might!
* * *
she was milking to-night. i went over and stood beside her. she looked up, and her eyes shone with a new brightness. she could not meet my gaze, and she flushed and looked the other way.
"margaret," i said softly, "i love you!"
she held up her lips to me ... and then i walked out of the byre.
and, you know, i intended to say something very different. i intended to say: "margaret, i was a fool last night. try to forget all about it."
i kissed her instead. i'm afraid i was a fool last night, and a fool to-night, and a fool all the time. however, i am a happy fool to-night.
