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She listened to the elder girls' music, and let the younger tribe of "wee toddling bairnies" climb on her knee and pull her curls. Finally, she began to think that some of these days there would be great pleasure in becoming an universal "Aunt Olive" to the rising generation.
"Saunders wesna tae live through the nicht, but he's livin' this meenut, an' like to live. "He's got by the warst clean and fair, and wi' him that's as good as cure. "It' ill be a graund waukenin' for Bell; she 'ill no be a weedow yet, nor the bairnies fatherless. "There's nae use glowerin' at me, Drumsheugh, for a body's daft at a time, an' a' canna contain masel' and a'm no gaein' tae try."
He raised himself in the bed he looked around wistfully. Agnes, who had recovered, and returned to the room, fell upon his bosom. "My Agnes! my poor Agnes!" he cried, gazing wistfully in her face "but, where where am I? and my bairnies, where are they?" "Here, faither, here!" cried the children, stretching out their little arms to embrace him. Again he looked anxiously around.
"Almichty God ... dinna be hard on Weelum MacLure, for he's no been hard wi' onybody in Drumtochty.... Be kind tae him as he's been tae us a' for forty year.... We're a' sinners afore Thee.... Forgive him what he's dune wrang, an' dinna cuist it up tae him.... Mind the fouk he's helpit .... the wee-men an' bairnies.... an' gie him a welcome hame, for he's sair needin't after a' his wark.... Amen."
"Then good night, bairnies. I must not keep the minister waiting. Maybe I'll be beyond your time. Don't lose your beauty sleep for me." He left the room in a hurry, and in a few minutes the "bairnies" heard the crunch of the retreating wheels upon the gravel. Mary continued at the piano, lightly running over with one hand the music she happened to turn. Allan stood on the hearth watching her.
Ah, me the bairnies left ahind, The shither, hither, blither! "What does it mean?" cried the girls, as Rose folded up the paper and sat down. "Mean?" said Rose, "I'm sure I don't know. It's Scotch, I tell you! It's the kind of thing that people read, and then they say, 'One of the loveliest gems that Burns ever wrote! I thought I'd see if I couldn't do one too.
"In many of the windows there is a box of flowers, or of kitchen herbs to make the broth savory." "It wasna so i' the auld days. It was aye washin's clappin' aboon the stanes. Noo, mony o' the mithers hang the claes oot at nicht. Ilka thing is changed sin' I was a wean an' leevin' i' the auld Guildhall, the bairnies haen Bobby to lo'e, an' no' to be neglectet."
"You an' me's aye been true til ane anither, Aggie," resumed Cosmo at length, "an' I wad fain hae a promise frae ye jist to content me." "What aboot, Cosmo?" "Promise, an' I'll tell ye, as the bairnies say." "But we're no bairnies, Cosmo, an' I daurna even to you 'at I wad trust like the Bible. Tell me what it is, an' gien I may, I wull." "It's no muckle atween you an' me, Aggie.
And luik upo' this bit hoosie, 'at I ca' my ain, and they a' helpit me to bigg, but as a lean-to til the hoose at hame, for I'm no awa frae it or them jist as that hoose and this hoose and a' the hooses are a' jist but bairnies' hooses, biggit by themsels aboot the big flure o' thy kitchie and i' the neuks o' the same wi' yer ain truffs and stanes and divots, sir.
The fact is they had burned me in effigy on the 5th and had so much enjoyed the ceremony that, when the original turned up, they really couldn't be civil to him, it would have been so very tame. I'm told the effigy was such a fearful-looking monster that it frightened the bairnies out of their wits, specially as it was first carried all round the place on a parish coffin!"
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