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The Lord has gi'en this hoose sae muckle, 'at to pray for muir looks like no bein' thankfu' for what we've got. Ay, but I canna help prayin' to Him 'at in His great mercy he'll take Jess afore me. No 'at Leeby's gone, an' Jamie never lets us hear frae him, I canna gulp doon the thocht o' Jess bein' left alane."
"Leeby was saxteen month younger than Joey, an' mair quiet like. Leeby's been my savin' ever since she was fower year auld. Ay, but it was Joey 'at hung aboot me maist, an' he took notice 'at I wasna gaen out as I used to do. Since sune after my marriage I've needed the stick, but there was days 'at I could gang across the road an' sit on a stane.
"Na," was the first remark of Leeby's that came between me and my book, "it is no new furniture." "But there was three cart-loads o't, Leeby, sent on frae Edinbory. Tibbie Birse helpit to lift it in, and she said the parlour furniture beat a'." "Ou, it's substantial, but it is no new.
"Dinna stir yer tea as if ye was churnin' butter, nor let on 'at the scones is no our am bakin'." "If Tibbie says onything aboot the china yer no' to say 'at we dinna use it ilka day." "Dinna lean back in the big chair, for it's broken, an' Leeby's gi'en it a lick o' glue this meenute." "When Leeby gies ye a kick aneath the table that'll be a sign to ye to say grace."
"Did she let him aff?" asked Jess, taking the words out of Leeby's mouth. "I'm comin' to that," said Tammas. "Gavin proposes to me after I had haen my laugh " "Yes," cried Hendry, banging the table with his fist, "it has a humorous side. Ye're richt again, Tammas."
She shook her head. "Na," said Hendry, "you never mixed them up. I dinna think ye ever missed Joey sae sair as I did." Leeby went ben, and stood in the room in the dark; Jamie knew why. "I'll just gang ben an' speak to Leeby for a meenute," he said to his mother; "I'll no be lang." "Ay, do that, Jamie," said Jess. "What Leeby's been to me nae tongue can tell.
When he had confidence in the preacher's soundness, he would sometimes have slept in his pew if Leeby had not had a watchful foot. She wakened him in an instant, while still looking modestly at the pulpit; however reverently he might try to fall over, Leeby's foot went out. She was such an artist that I never caught her in the act.
Jess, however, having three whole white plates and two cracked ones, insisted on the meals being taken genteelly, and her husband, with a look at me, gave way. "Half a pound o' boiling beef, an' a penny bone," was Leeby's almost invariable order when she dealt with the flesher, and Jess had always neighbours poorer than herself who got a plateful of the broth.
In answer to Leeby's nods, Hendry slowly pulled out his boots from beneath the table, and sat looking at them, preparatory to putting them on. He was beginning at last to be a little scared, though his face did not show it. "I winna hae ye," cried Jess, getting to her feet, "ga'en to the doctor's sic a sicht. Yer coat's a' yarn." "Havers," said Hendry, but Jess became frantic.
Ay, I dinna ken a' the different things it became, but the last time I saw it was ben in the room, whaur she'd covered a footstool wi' 't. Yes, Jess is the cleverest crittur I ever saw. Leeby's handy, but she's no a patch on her mother." I sometimes repeated these panegyrics to Jess. She merely smiled, and said that the men haver most terrible when they are not at their work.
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