People looked twice at John
Murchison in a crowd; so did his own children at home.
Hearing some discussion of the selection of a premier,
Alec, looking earnestly at him once said, "Why don't they
tell Father to be it?" The young minister looked twice
at him that morning of the trial sermon, and asked
afterward who he was. A Scotchman, Mr Drummond was told,
not very long from the old country, who had bought the
Playfair business on Main Street, and settled in the
"Plummer Place," which already had a quarter of a century's
standing in the annals of the town. The Playfair business
was a respectable business to buy; the Plummer Place,
though it stood in an unfashionable outskirt, was a
respectable place to settle in; and the minister, in
casting his lot in Elgin, envisaged John Murchison as
part of it, thought of him confidently as a "dependance,"
saw him among the future elders and office-bearers of
the congregation, a man who would be punctual with his
pew-rent, sage in his judgements, and whose views upon
church attendance would be extended to his family.
So the two came, contemporaries, to add their labour and
their lives to the building of this little outpost of
Empire. It was the frankest transfer, without thought of
return; they were there to spend and be spent within the
circumference of the spot they had chosen, with no ambition
beyond.
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