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200 "Maybe so, but folk canna a' mind their ain business when they once get alongside of you, Jessie; but that minds me it's getting late and I must be jogging. Will ye see to my beast, George, and bring him round?" George was rising with no very good grace, when Allan offered to do it; and in a few minutes McCallum took leave of the family.

"A very douce man he is, and a good neighbour; he must be a great comfort to his old mother, poor body. It's a great odds to us having him at Aralewin, from thae upsetting Hammonds," said Mrs. Lindsay.

"He is rather upsetting himself, mother," said Jessie; "so ready with his advice, as if we didn't know how to manage our own affairs, and after all the years that my father has been in the colony too."

"He has great skill in sheep-managing on large stations, no doubt; but I never had any opinion of that new fangled way of dressing that he recommends. Our own fashion has served our turn, though he makes light of it," said Mr. Lindsay.

"He's a regular sawny," said Isabel. "I wonder, Jessie, that you can put up with a slow Scotchman like that."