Alec Forbes of Howglen

pt down-stairs to look for help in this her first need. Nobody, however, was awake. She looked long

hat she had left of that home was her box, and she would have betaken herself to a desolate brooding over its contents; but it had not been brought up, and neither could she carry it up herself, nor would she open it in the kitchen where it stood. So she sat down on the side of her bed, and gazed round the room. It was a cheerless room. At home

grew; was presently enriched by the admixture of baby-screams, and the sound of the shop-shutters being taken down;

l dress yer

eerily as she could. "But," she added,

he pump, than,"

l, and was dried by the hands of Mrs Bruce in her dirty apron.-This mode of washing lasted till the first

-made oatmeal porridge and sky-blue milk. This quality of the milk was remarkable, seeing they had cows of their own. But then they sold milk. And if any customer had accused her of watering it, Mrs Bruce's best answer would have been to show how much better what she

ion not very extraordinary to the ears of Annie, or, indeed, of any one brought up in Scotland; a chapter was read-it happened to tell the story of Jacob's speculations in the money-market of his day and generation; and the exercise concluded with a prayer of a quarter of an hour, in which the God of Jacob especially was invoked to bless the Bruces, His servants, in

nd sitting down, drew Annie towards him-between his k

but ye maun gang to the school the morn. We can hae no id

ad to get away from him. Indeed the prospect of school, after what she had

sir. Will I g

uce added, in the tone of one conferring a

s gaein on. Whan ye're a muckle woman, ye may be fit

ight be enriched with their spoils. It was, therefore, a place of so great interest in his eyes, that he thought it must b

ever, lest she should put forth her hand and take, the militant eyes of Robert Bruce never ceased watchi

at; so that she soon ceased to admire even the picture-books-a natural result of the conviction that they belonged to a sphere above her reach. Mr Bruce, on the other hand, looked upon them a

his window, after two little urchins, with bawbees to spend, had bought a couple of the radiant re

like a great spider that ate child

e and disposition, made faces at Annie across the table as often as he judged it prudent to run the risk of discovery; but Annie was too stupefied with

down at the desk to write letters and make out bills. Not that there was much of either sort of clerkship necessary; but Bruce, like Chaucer's Man of Law, was so fond of busi

uce, "an' haud oot

found herself at the me

the act. Now the Bruces were not good children, as was natural; and they despised Annie because she was a girl, and because she had no self-assertion. If she had shown herself aggressively disagreeable, they would have made some attempt to conciliate her; but as it was, she became at once the object of a succession of spiteful annoyances, varying in intensity with the fluctuating invention of the two boys. At one ti

, they winna

hop wi' yer stories. M

winna ma

ssumption of much parental grandeur. He was instantly greeted with a torrent of assurances that

tell lees, ye

ent him from reading them also a les

whine, "that poor Annie has neither father

recommenced, though in a somewhat mitigated form. The little wretches were perfectly unable to

ble to give due weight to the influence of other events, when, in due time, they come to be recorded. But I must not conclude the acc

lf-asleep already; or, I should rather say, onl

claes, as weel as pit them

ttie o' can'le," was Annie's trembling repl

w (flame) aboot oor lugs (ears). I canna affoord can'les. Ye can jist mak' a can'le o' yer han's, an

rt, but without

ive as it would otherwise have been, in recalling the terrible stories of ghosts and dead people with which she was far too familiar. She soon got into bed, and, as a precautionary measure, buried her head under the clothes before she began to say h

I kent 'at it was rottans; but my tongue booed

running about the room was as impossible as it was to cry out. But her heart did what her tongue could not do-cried out wi

are o' me fra

ittle one's prayer: the cat would do. Annie heard a scratch and a

covering the voice for joy

had prayed, she sprang out of bed, darted across the room, and opened the door to let her in. A few moments and she wa

or of the mind also, ready as it