Page:Dreams and apparitions (1).pdf/17

17 was very weel."

"She's ae fool, and ye're another! If I had been her, I wad hae blazed it baith to kirk & council;—to his wife's ear, and his minister's teeth! I wad hae gert heaven sab, and hell girn at it! isna 'the resetter waur than the thief? the cowardly butcher that conceals the lambs and kills them, waur than the open fauld-brikker and sheep reiver? And isna the sweet-lippit kiss-my-lufe saint waur than the stouthright reprobate? Figh, fie! A dish o'sodden turnips at the best. She's very wel, is she? Oh! Red an' rosey like a boiled lobster? Ay. Hoh, on, oh, oh? silly woman, silly woman, Hoh, oh, oh!”

In a few weeks Mr Forret's behaviour to his simple dairymaid altered very materially. He called her no more by the endearing name of Rosy; poor idiot was oftner the term; and finding he was now safe from accusation, his malevolence towards her had scarcely any bounds. She made out her term with difficulty, but he refused to pay the stipulated wage, on pretence of her incapacity; and as she had by that time profited well at his hand, she took what he offered, thanked him, and said no more about it. She was no more hired as a servant, but having at the first taken a long lease of the cottage, she continued,