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Had the farmer noted the change in the level of the whisky in his bottle, he might have been surer of it except indeed the doubt had then arisen whether they might not rather find her at the foot of the stair when the water subsided. Mr. Duff said the luck changed with the return of Snowball; his sister said, with the departure of the beggar-wife.
"Then," says he, "the darkness of the latter days came over my spirit like a vision before the prophet Isaiah; and I could see nothing in the years to come but beggary and starvation, myself a fallen-back old man, with an out-at-the-elbows coat, a greasy hat, and a bald brow, hirpling over a staff, requeeshting an awmous; Nanse a broken-hearted beggar-wife, torn down to tatters, and weeping like Rachel when she thought on better days; and poor wee Benjie going from door to door with a meal-pock on his back."
"Then," says he, "the darkness of the latter days came over my spirit like a vision before the prophet Isaiah; and I could see nothing in the years to come but beggary and starvation, myself a fallen-back old man. with an out-at-the-elbows coat, a greasy hat, and a bald brow, hirpling over a staff, requeeshting an awmous: Nanse a broken-hearted beggar-wife, torn down to tatters, and weeping like Eachel when she thought on better days; and poor wee Benjie going from door to door with a meal-pock on his back."
But the next instant she screamed aloud, "Lord God Almichty! yon's him! yon's himsel'!" and, stretching out her arms, dashed a hand through a pane, letting in an eddying swirl of wind and water, while the blood streamed unheeded from her wrist. The same moment Jean entered the room. She heard both the cry and the sound of the breaking glass. "Care what set the beggar-wife!" she exclaimed.
"O, I wad like to ken to the beggar-wife says I Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry, An' siller, that's sae braw to get, is brawer still to gie. It's gey an' easy speirin', says the beggar-wife to me." It is always easier for poor human nature to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice.
Our guidewife," he continued, addressing their guest, "has aye been fear'd for infectious diseases since a beggar-wife brought the fever to the town mair than fourteen years back. But, though ye had five-and-twenty fevers ay, fifty o' them that's no enough to let you get your death o' cauld wi thae weet claes on; sae ye maun e'en consent to shift yoursel."
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