human
I hear we're off soon,
gpt
There's no telling,
human
Ay, but we shall, replied Alec,
gpt
I doan't wonder at it,
human
What micht ye mean by that?
gpt
I am fair stalled wi' thee, said Tom.
human
I thought that you, being a thinking sort o' chap, would know better. You saw what a fool I was making of myself, and yet you kept on drinking and carousing, and making a ninny of yourself, as though you had no more brains nor a waterhen. Why, lad, with your education and cleverness, you might have been sergeant-major by now. Nay, nay, keep thee temper; I mean nowt wrong.
gpt
Ay, Tom, you're richt, and yet I'm no' sure.
human
What do you mean?
gpt
Tom, man, said the Scotchman,
human
Besides what?
gpt
Ay, man, I'm not a hero when it comes to facing death. I fancy I'm as brave as most men about lots of things, but I just shiver when I think o' dying; then I tak' a wee drap of whisky, and it gi'es me courage.
human
Poor sort of courage, replied Tom;
gpt
Ay, it needs mair and mair. But it's this way, Tom; when I think of going over the water into those trenches, and when I think of the shells falling all around me; when I call to mind that men may be dying at my richt hand and on my left, blown all to smithereens, I get afraid, but after I have filled mysel' fou' of whisky I don't care. I know I ought to be ashamed of mysel'; I know, too, it's the wrang sort of courage. As for you, Tom, you have been wiser than me, you've got releegion.
human
Nay, I've nowt o' th' sort, replied Tom,
gpt
I've just kept straight, that's all.
human
But it's not enough, Tom,
gpt
What does a' mean?
human
I mean that a man wants releegion, replied Alec very solemnly.
gpt
I have been a thinking lad all my life, and when I chucked releegion and professed to believe in Colonel Ingersoll I kenned fine I was making a fool of mysel'. It's either whisky or releegion to keep a man's courage up; that is, such a man as me.
human
Then you think there's something after death?
gpt
Ay, lad, I am sure of it. I'm a-thinking you're richt, Tom, in going to the Y.M.C.A. meetings, and I know you're wrang in not getting releegion. E'en when I'm fou' of whisky, I have known that releegion was necessary; and if I only had the strength I'd gi' up the whisky.