^ It is related of Sir Ealph Abercrombie, the hero of Aboukir, that, mortally wounded, he was carried on board one of his ships and a soldier's blanket placed under his head. He expressed relief, and then asked whose blanket was at his head. "Only a soldier's blanket," was the reply. "Whose blanket, did you say ? " he queried earnestly. " Only one of the men's," came the reply a second time. "I wish to know the name of the man to whom this blanket belongs," he persisted. "It is Duncan Eoy's, of the Forty-second, Sir Ralph." " Then," said the dying general, "see that Duncan Eoy gets his blanket this very night. He will be cold without it, and I shall not need it then."i
^ It is not wise as a rule to make comparisons between classes, but I am inclined to think that if it comes to the spirit of courtesy, which lies behind all manners, respectable working people, say, our artisans and their wives, will make a better show than their masters and their wives. They will be less concerned * G. C. Pock, Old Sins in New Clothes, 269.
244 A GREETING IN HARVEST
about their own dignity — which is always a sign of vulgarity; they will have more regard to the claims of other people ; they will be more anxious not to hurt another's feelings, and they will be quicker to render services in the little exigencies of life ; and all this is the fruit of courtesy. Were any woman (and I count this a perfect test) travelling with a young child and some articles of luggage, it would be better for her as a rule to take a place in a third-class rather than in a first-class carriage. The chances are that the richer people — unless they gathered from something she said or from her name upon a dressing-case that she was a person of distinction, in which case they would take any trouble in exact proportion to their own meanness — would eye her with displeasure, convey to her that the child was a nuisance, ignore the struggle with her luggage, and make her glad to leave the compartment. Were she to travel with an artisan and his wife, they would bid her welcome, and make her feel at home, and anticipate her wants and encompass her with observances, because she was a lonely woman with a child. And the service of a woman and a child is more than manners — it is the climax of courtesy.^
^ Nothing becomes a lady better than courtesy ; and as to this word, let not the vulgar herd — poor wretches ! — be deceived, who think that courtesy is only another name for open-handed- ness ; for to be open-handed is not courtesy in general, but a special form of it. Courtesy is the same as goodness ; for, inasmuch as in the courts of old virtue and good manners were cultivated (as to-day their contraries are), this term was derived from the word court, so that courtesy meant the usage of the court. But if it were to be derived from the courts of the present day, especially in Italy, it would only be another term for what is base.2
^ Livingstone treated every black man as if he were a blood- relation. He saluted the poorest with a very pleasant smile, and raised his gold-laced cap (the badge of his high office) a little above his head. Before the poorest African he maintained self- restraint and self-respect as carefully as in the best society at home.^
^ Once when Dr. Stewart and Mr. Mzimba were travelling together to attend a meeting of Presbytery, they had to spend a night at a wayside inn. Knowing that hotel-keepers as a rule do not give up a bedroom to a native, Dr. Stewart, after being
^ John Watson, The Homely Virtues, 165.
2 Dante, Convivio, ii. ii. 54-68, tr. by Toynbce.
' Life of Jamas Stewart of Livingstonia, 90.
RUTH II. 4 245
shown his room, asked the landlady what accommodation Mr. Mzimba was to have. " Oh," she said, " I will let him sleep in the loft outside." "Well, well," was the quiet rejoinder, "just let me see the place." They were taken to the loft above the stable. Dr. Stewart turned to Mr. Mzimba and said, in presence of the landlady, " You go and occupy my room, and I will sleep here." " Oh, no," was her reply, " I cannot allow that." " But I insist upon it," continued Dr. Stewart ; " if you have no bedroom in the house to give my friend, he must take my room." The upshot was that Mr. Mzimba was shown into a comfortable room. During many years this landlady told this wonderful story to her guests. It seemed to have been the only experience of the kind she had known.^
(3) But there is more than courtesy and consideration in the greeting. There is genuine piety. We are struck most of all by the religious spirit which pervades the salutation. No doubt the words were the common Eastern salutation. Be it so. They still compare very favourably with many of our own salutations, and are vastly different in spirit from the language occasionally heard in the harvest-field to-day. They may be even the more significant because they were phrases in such ordinary use. A man's commonplace remarks will reveal his character more than his more studied and formal speeches.