Page:Authors daughter v1.djvu/203

Rh that the pigs get. Talk o' lambs feeding on green wheat, they'd open their eyes in Teviotdale to hear o' feeding pigs on peaches and apricots. But what wi' the sheep and the bit farm and the dairy, there's full work for all of us the whole year round, and a full house and abundance, and something put into the stocking every year from all hands. And as for Allan's wheat and Jessie's butter and cheese, they'd tak the prize at the Show if it was na owre muckle fash to send them sae far."

"There's nae doot o' Jessie's skill and her eydant hand. I heard a' aboot what she could do lang or I came to this district," said McCallum, who talked his broadest Scotch to Mrs. Lindsay by way of making himself agreeable.

"And who told you that?" said the mother, who was fond of Jessie, and eager to know who had spread her fame.

"Deed it was a shepherd on Blackwood station, where I came from last, that had been awhile at Branxholm, Bill Rooney by name, that told me about Jessie's cleverness."

"He had very little to do," said Jessie, nettled at the familiar use of her Christian name. "He was the idlest man we ever had in the house; if he had minded his own business better it would have been better for him."