or her suffering child!"

"She doesna ken what suffering is, hersel'. She ne'er tak's cold and
she doesna see why ither folks should. She is never fearsome, or
nervous, she never feels the dark to be full o' what terrifies her
vera soul, and she canna understand her bairn's terror. She treats him
vera much as she treats his brithers, but they are big, rugged lads,
that naething hurts or frights. All right for them, but she is slowly
killin' little James, and you couldna mak' her see it."

"Feyther ought not to lose an hour."

"He'll hae to be vera cautious i' the matter. Allan's wife isna easily
managed. Proud and strong in her health and youth, she is fairly
scounfu' o' the weak and sick, but I think your feyther can manage
her. I'll get him awa' tomorrow, if so be it's possible."

Then there was such pressure of the two women brought to bear upon the
grandfather's heart, that he was eager for the morning to come, and
before it was yet light he was away to the town, to catch the earliest
train to Edinburgh, from which place he could get quick transit to
Glasgow.

"Now, Mither, we hae done a' we can, at the present, for Allan's
little lad," said Christine. "Do you think feyther will write to us?"

"I'm sure he will not. He wad rayther do a hard day's work than write
a letter. What are you going to do wi' your day, dearie?"

"I am going to write to Neil."

"Do. You might remind him that his feyther and mither are yet living
in Culraine."

"That news isna worth while. If he wants to write, he'll write. If he
doesna want to write, we arena begging letters. I'm thinking mair o'
little James than I am o' Neil. You dinna like his mither, I'm
thinking?"

"You're thinking right. Allan picked her up in some unkent place, and
when a man lives between sailing and docking, he hasna time to ken
what he's doing. Forbye, Christine, new relations dinna get into their
place easy. They mind me o' that new dress my sister sent me frae
Liverpool. It wanted a lot o' taking-in, and o' letting-out. It's just
that way wi' new relations. Allan's wife required plentiful taking-in,
and the mair letting-out there was, the mair unfittable she became."
Then Margot rubbed the end of her nose with an air of scorn, and said
decidedly, "She wasna a comprehensible woman. I couldna be fashed wi'
her. It isna the bringing o' bairns to the birth, that hurts the heart
and spoils the life o' a mither, it's the way lads and lasses marry
themsel's