Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 1).djvu/200

 "Hout fie, bairns!" said the old lady, with something of a good-humoured reproof, "ye should na vex your billy Hobbie that way. Look round, my bairn, and see if there is na ane here mair than you left this morning."

Hobbie looked eagerly round. "There's you, and the three titties."

"There's four of us now, Hobbie, lad," said the youngest, who at this moment entered.

In an instant Hobbie had in his arms Grace Armstrong, who, with one of his sister's plaids around her, had passed unnoticed at his first entrance. "How dared you do this?" said Hobbie.

"It wasna my fault," said Grace, endeavouring to cover her face with her hands, to hide at once her blushes and escape the storm of hearty kisses with which her bridegroom punished her simple stratagem,—"It wasna my fault, Hobbie; ye should kiss Jeanie and the rest o' them, for they hae the wyte o't."

"And so I will," said Hobbie, and em-