ve been well for her, Aaron, if she had married
you."

"Is that all you have to say?" asked the warper, who had let her enter
no farther than the hallan.

"I would expect him to lift Francie ower the pools in wet weather; and
it might be as well if he called him Master Francie."

"Is that all?"

"Ay, I ask no more, for we maun all help Jean's bairns. If she could
only look down, Aaron, and see her little velvets, as she called him,
lifting my little corduroys ower the pools!"

Aaron flung open the door. "Munt!" he said, and he looked so dangerous
that she retired at once. He sent Tommy to Ballingall's, and accepted
Miss Ailie's offer for Elspeth, but this was an impossible arrangement,
for it was known to the two persons primarily concerned that Elspeth
would die if she was not where Tommy was. The few boys he had already
begun to know were at Cathro's or Ballingall's, and as they called Miss
Ailie's a lassie school he had no desire to attend it, but where he was
there also must Elspeth be. Daily he escaped from Ballingall's and hid
near the Dovecot, as Miss Ailie's house was called, and every little
while he gave vent to Shovel's whistle, so that Elspeth might know of
his proximity and be cheered. Thrice was he carried back, kicking, to
Ballingall's by urchins sent in pursuit, stern ministers of justice on
the first two occasions; but on the third they made him an offer: if he
would hide in Couthie's hen-house they were willing to look for him
everywhere else for two hours.

Tommy's behavior seemed beautiful to the impressionable Miss Ailie, but
it infuriated Aaron, and on the fourth day he set off for the parish
school, meaning to put the truant in the hands of Cathro, from whom
there was no escape. Vainly had Elspeth implored him to let Tommy come
to the Dovecot, and vainly apparently was she trotting at his side now,
looking up appealingly in his face. But when they reached the gate of
the parish school-yard he walked past it because she was tugging him,
and always when he seemed about to turn she took his hand again, and he
seemed to have lost the power to resist Jean Myles's bairn. So they came
to the Dovecot, and Miss Ailie gained a pupil who had been meant for
Cathro. Tommy's arms were stronger than Elspeth's, but they could not
hare done as much for him that day.

Thus did the two children enter upon the genteel career, to the
indignation of the other boys and girls of Monypenny, all of whom were
commo