Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/181

 "If you are going to clean that table," said Mrs Mason, "you will give yourself more work than you need, by daubing it all over with the porridge; bring your cloth, and I shall shew you how I learned to clean our tables when I was a girl like you."

Meg continued to make lines with her fore finger.

"Come," said Mrs Mason, "shall I teach you?"

"Na," said Meg, "I sal dight nane o't. I'm gain to the schul." "But that need not hinder you to wipe up the table before you go," said Mrs Mason. "You might have cleaned it up as bright as a looking-glass, in the time that you have spent in spattering it, and dirtying your fingers. Would it not be pleasanter for you to make it clean, than to leave it dirty?"

"I'II no be at the fash," returned Meg, making off to the door as she spoke. Before she got out, she was met by her