The Little Minister

“What does it feel like to be afraid?” she asked, eyeing him.

“I am afraid of nothing,” Gavin answered, offended in turn.

“Yes, you are. When you saw me come out of Nanny’s you crept behind a tree; when these boys showed themselves you shook. You are afraid of being seen with me. Go away, then; I don’t want you.”

“Fear,” said Gavin, “is one thing, and prudence is another.”

“Another name for it,” Babbie interposed.

“Not at all; but I owe it to my position to be careful. Unhappily, you do not seem to feel – to recognise – to know – ”

“To know what?”

“Let us avoid the subject.”

“No,” the Egyptian said, petulantly. “I hate not to be told things. Why must you be ‘prudent?’”

“You should see,” Gavin replied, awkwardly, “that there is a – a difference between a minister and a gypsy.”

“But if I am willing to overlook it?” asked Babbie, impertinently.

Gavin beat the brushwood mournfully with his staff.

“I cannot allow you,” he said, “to talk disrespectfully of my calling. It is the highest a man can follow. I wish – ”

He checked himself; but he was wishing she could see him in his pulpit.

“I suppose,” said the gypsy, reflectively, “one must be very clever to be a minister.”

“As for that – ” answered Gavin, waving his hand grandly.

“And it must be nice, too,” continued Babbie, “to be able to speak for a whole hour to people who can neither answer nor go away. Is it true that before you begin to preach you lock the door to keep the congregation in?”

“I must leave you if you talk in that way.”

“I only wanted to know.”

“Oh, Babbie, I am afraid you have little acquaintance with the inside of churches. Do you sit under anybody?”

“Do I sit under anybody?” repeated Babbie, blankly.

Is it any wonder that the minister sighed? “Whom 165 do you sit under?” was his form of salutation to strangers.

“I mean, where do you belong?” he said.

“Wanderers,” Babbie answered, still misunderstanding him, “belong to nowhere in particular.”

“I am only asking you if you ever go to church?”

“Oh, that is what you mean. Yes, I go often.”

“What church?”

“You promised not to ask questions.”

“I only mean what denomination do you belong to?”

“Oh, the – the – Is there an English church denomination?”

Gavin groaned.

“Well, that is my denomination,” said Babbie, cheerfully. “Some day, though, I am coming to hear you preach. I should like to see how you look in your gown.”

“We don’t wear gowns.”

“What a shame! But I am coming, nevertheless. I used to like going to church in Edinburgh.”

“You have lived in Edinburgh?”

“We gypsies have lived everywhere,” Babbie said, lightly, though she was annoyed at having mentioned Edinburgh.

“But all gypsies don’t speak as you do,” said Gavin, puzzled again. “I don’t understand you.”

“Of course you dinna,” replied Babbie, in broad Scotch. “Maybe, if you did, you would think that it’s mair imprudent in me to stand here cracking clavers wi’ the minister than for the minister to waste his time cracking wi’ me.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because – Oh, because prudence and I always take different roads.”

“Tell me who you are, Babbie,” the minister entreated; “at least, tell me where your encampment is.”

“You have warned me against imprudence,” she said.

“I want,” Gavin continued, earnestly, “to know your people, your father and mother.”

“Why?”

“Because,” he answered, stoutly, “I like their daughter.”

At that Babbie’s fingers played on one of the pans, and, for the moment, there was no more badinage in her.

“You are a good man,” she said, abruptly; “but you will never know my parents.”

“Are they dead?”

“They may be; I cannot tell.”

“This is all incomprehensible to me.”