him, 'I'll no seek to go through the toon wi' ye. Na, I'll gang roond
by the Roods an' you can tak the buryin'-ground road, so as we can meet
on the hill.' Yes, Leeby was willin' to agree wi' a' that, juist to
get gaen wi' him. I've seen lassies makkin' themsels sma' for lads
often enough, but I never saw ane 'at prigged so muckle wi' her ain
brother. Na, it's other lassies' brothers they like as a rule."

"But though Jamie was terrible reserved aboot it," said Leeby, "he was
as fond o' me as ever I was o' him. Ye mind the time I had the
measles, mother?"

"Am no likely to forget it, Leeby," said Jess, "an' you blind wi' them
for three days. Ay, ay, Jamie was richt taen up aboot ye. I mind he
broke open his pirly (money-box), an' bocht a ha'penny worth o'
something to ye every day."

"An' ye hinna forgotten the stick?"

"'Deed no, I hinna. Ye see," Jess explained to me, "Leeby was lyin'
ben the hoose, an' Jamie wasna allowed to gang near her for fear o'
infection. Weel, he gat a lang stick--it was a pea-stick--an' put it
aneath the door an' waggled it. Ay, he did that a curran times every
day, juist to let her see he was thinkin' o' her."

"Mair than that," said Leeby, "he cried oot 'at he loved me."

"Ay, but juist aince," Jess said, "I dinna mind o't but aince. It was
the time the doctor came late, an' Jamie, being waukened by him, thocht
ye was deein'. I mind as if it was yesterday hoo he cam runnin' to the
door an' cried oot, 'I do love ye, Leeby; I love ye richt.' The doctor
got a start when he heard the voice, but he laughed loud when he
un'erstood."

"He had nae business, though," said Leeby, "to tell onybody."

"He was a rale clever man, the doctor," Jess explained to me, "ay, he
kent me as weel as though he'd gaen through me wi' a lichted candle.
It got oot through him, an' the young billies took to sayin' to Jamie,
'Ye do love her, Jamie; ay, ye love her richt.' The only reglar fecht
I ever kent Jamie hae was wi' a lad 'at cried that to him. It was
Bowlegs Chirsty's laddie. Ay, but when she got better Jamie blamed
Leeby."

"He no only blamed me," said Leeby, "but he wanted me to pay him back
a' the bawbees he had spent on me."

"Ay, an' I sepad he got them too," said Jess. In time Jamie became a
barber in Tilliedrum, trudging many heavy miles there and back twice a
day that he might sleep at home, trudging bravely I was to say, but it
was what he was born to, and there was hardly