Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/44

 reached her comprehension. "But would it not be more respectabler like, if I was to run up the street and meet her, and fotch her home—say?"

"Na', na'!" said the grandmother, smiling; "I dinna think ye ha' need to do that. She'll win hame her lane afore the neet fa's, I'm thinkin'."

"Well, if yer say so, I s'pose she will. Of course yer knows best;" and Winny returned to the kitchen.

Another quarter of an hour "dragged its slow length along," and just as the grandmother, beginning to grow really anxious, had risen to lay aside her knitting, in order, probably, to give herself up more fully to the indulgence of her nameless fears, the tramp of a horse's feet at the gate, and a low, sweet burst of ringing, girlish laughter, dispelled them altogether, and she reached the door just in time to see her darling carefully lifted from the pillion by an honest-looking young man, who, with a gay "Goodnight to you," rode laughingly away.

"Weel-a-weel! Allie," she said, meeting her at the door; "ye hae bin lang awa',