at it must be to have no
change, and we had so many. Poor wee Norah, too. Her mother's dead you
ken, and she looked so miserable."

Janet was pacified.

"Weel, Miss Graeme, I'll no' heed. But my dear, it's no' like we'll
find good clothes growing upon trees in this land, more than in our own.
And we had need to be careful. I wonder where a' the strippet pillow
slips can be? I see far more of the fine ones dirty than were needed,
if you had been careful, and guarded them."

But Graeme was out of hearing before she came to this.

They landed at last, and a very dreary landing it was. They had waited
for hours, till the clouds should exhaust themselves, but the rain was
still falling when they left the ship. Eager and excited, the whole
party were, but not after the anticipated fashion. Graeme was
surprised, and a little mortified, to find no particular emotions
swelling at her heart, as her feet touched the soil which the Puritans
had rendered sacred. Indeed, she was too painfully conscious, that the
sacred soil was putting her shoes and frock in jeopardy, and had too
much trouble to keep the umbrella over Marian and herself, to be able to
give any thanks to the sufferings of the Pilgrim fathers, or mothers
either. Mr Elliott had been on shore in the morning, and had engaged
rooms for them in a quiet street, and thither Allan Ruthven, carrying
little Rose, was to conduct them, while he attended to the proper
bestowment of their baggage.

This duty Janet fain would have shared with him. Her reverence for the
minister, and his many excellencies, did not imply entire confidence in
his capacity, for that sort of business, and when he directed her to go
with the bairns, it was with many misgivings that she obeyed. Indeed,
as the loaded cart took its departure in another direction, she
expressed herself morally certain, that they had seen the last of it,
for she fully believed that, "yon sharp-looking lad could carry it off
from beneath the minister's nose."

Dread of more distant evils was, however, driven from her thoughts by
present necessities. The din and bustle of the crowded wharf, would
have been sufficient to "daze" the sober-minded country-woman, without
the charge of little Will, and unnumbered bundles, and the two "daft
laddies forby." On their part, Norman and Harry scorned the idea of
being taken care of, and loaded with baskets and other movables, made
their way through the crowd, in a manner