SIR WALTER SCOTT AND MARJORIE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 47, 21 November 1891, Page 599

SIR WALTER SCOTT AND MARJORIE.

In his large, green morocco elbow-chair, in his ‘ den,’ as he called it, in Edinburgh, Sir Walter Scott sat, and in one year, at fifty-two years of age, wrote three novels, besides other things. Sometimes when the inspiration was lacking.

he would start up fiom his writing desk, saying, ‘I can make nothing of all this to day ; come Maida, you thief ’; and would ramble out with his dog to a house, where lived a dear little precocious child, by the name of Marjorie Fleming. ‘White as a frosted plumcake,’ he exclaimed, as one snowy morning he took his plaid and went to her house, of which, as a privileged friend, he had a door key. In the house Sir Walter and the hound went, shaking off the snowin the lobby. ‘ Marjorie ! Marjorie !’ the old man would shout on such an occasion, ‘ where are ye, my bonnie wee creedle doo ?’ In a moment, a little eager, bright-eyed child of seven would leap into his arms, and, as he kissed the child’s face all over, ‘ Come in, Wattie,’ the mother would say. * No, no ; I am going to take Marjorie home wi’ me, and you may come to your tea in Duncan Ray’s sedan, and bring the bairn home in your lap.’ ‘ Tak’ Marjorie and it on-ding-a-snaw. ‘ Hoot awa’ ! Look here,’ Sir Walter would say, as he held up the corner of his plaid, sewed up so as to make a bag. • Tak’ your lamb,’ the mother would reply, laughing at the ingenious contrivance. And so Marjorie, well wrapped would be put into the plaid bag, and Scott would stride oil' through the snow with her, the great dog Maida gambolling When he reached his own ‘den’ he would take out the warm, .rosy little creature, and for three hours the two would mate the house ring with laughter. Making the fire bu i n brightly, he would set Marjorie in his big green morocco

chair, and standing sheepishly before her, Iregin to say his lesson to her, and this was his lesson :— Won-ery. two-ery, tiek-ery. seven ; Alibi, crackaby, ten and eleven ; I’en. pan—musky, dan ; Tweedle-um. twoddie-up. twenty-wan : Eerie, orie. ourie; You—are—out! He pretended great difficulty in saying it ; and little Marjorie would rebuke him with much gravity, treating him like a little child. Then Sir Walter would read ballads to her, till the two were wild with excitement. Then he would take her on his knee and make her repeat Sliakespere, which she did in a most wonderful manner. Scott used to say that he was amazed himself at her power over him, and that these recitals of hers affected him as nothing else ever did. One night, in Edinburgh, little Marjorie was invited to a twelfth night supper at Scott’s. All his friends had arrived but this little dearest friend of all ; and all were dull because Scott was dull. At last he exclaimed, impatiently, ‘ Where’s that bairn ? I’ll go myself and see !’ and he was getting up, and would have gone, when the bell rang, and in came Duncan Ray and his henchman Tougal and the sedan-chair, which was brought right into the lobby, and the top raised. And there, in its darkness and dingy old cloth, sat bright little Marjorie, with her gleaming eyes, dressed in white ; and Scott, bending over her in ecstasy, cried : ‘ Sit ye there, my dautie, till they all see you !’ giving way to his guests. Soon he lifted the child, and perching her on his shoulders, marched with her to his seat and placed her beside him ; and then began the night. And such a night! Those who knew Scott best said it was never equalled. Marjorie and he were the stars. She gave them alt her little songs which Sir Walter had taught her—he often making blunders on purpose, while showing her off, for the fun of hearing her grave rebukes. One year after this, when Marjorie was eight years old,

she went to bed apparently well, but suddenly awoke her mother with the cry, ‘My head !my head !’ Three days afterwards she died of water on the brain. Scott's grief may be imagined when those deep-set, brooding eyes were closed, and the sweet, mobile mouth, so like his own, had, for the first time, for him no smile of greeting '.