* * * *

I don't know if the following will _read_ comprehensibly. _Told_ it
was overwhelming, and was a prime favourite with the Scotch audience.

Hoo oor Baby was _burrrned_.
(How our Baby was burnt.)

(You must realize a kind of amiable bland _whine_ in the way of
telling this. A caressing tone in the Scotch drawl, as the good lady
speaks of _oor wee Wullie_, etc. Also a roll of the r's on the word
burned.)

"Did ye never hear hoo oor wee Baby was burrrned? Well ye see--it was
_this_ way. The Minister and me had been to _Peebles_--and we were
awfu' tired, and we were just haeing oor bit suppers--when oor wee
Wullie cam doon-stairs and he says--'Mither, Baby's _burrrning_.'

"--Y'unerstan it was the day that the Minister and me were at Peebles.
We were _awful_ tired, and we were just at oor suppers, and the
Minister says (very loud and nasal), '_Ca'll Nurrse_!'--but as it
rarely and unfortunitly happened--Nurrse was washing and she couldna
be fashed.

"And in a while our WEE Wullie cam down the stairs again, and
he says--'Mither! Baby's burning.'

"--as I was saying the Minister and me had been away over at Peebles,
and we were in the verra midst of oor suppers, and I said to him--'Why
didna ye call Nurse?'--and off he ran.

"--and there was the misfirtune of it--Nurrse was washing, and she
wouldn't be fashed.

"And--in--a while--oor weee Wullie--came doon the stairs again--and
he says 'Mither! Baby's burrrned.' And that was the way oor poor woe
baby was burnt!"

* * * * *

Now for one English one and then I must stop to-day. I flatter myself
I can tell this with a nice mincing and yet vinegar-ish voice.

"When I married my 'Usbin I had no expectation that he would live
three week.

"But Providence--for wise purposes no doubt!--has seen fit to spare
him three years.

"And there he sits, all day long, a-reading the _Illustrious News_."

Now I must stop....

Your loving niece,
JULIANA HORATIA EWING.

TO A.E.

_Grenoside._ Advent Sunday, 1881.

* * * * *

On one point I think I have improved in my sketching. I have been long
wanting to get a _quick style_ sketching not painting. Because I shall
never have the time, or the time and strength to pursue a more
finished style with success. Now I have got paper on which I can make
no corrections (so it forces me to be "to the point"), and which takes
colour