Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/217

 knife," said Jean, "for the last I got stack i' my throat."

"Bless me!" cried Mrs Mason, in amazement, "how does your butter come to be so full of hairs? where do they come from?"

"O they are a' frae the cows," returned Mrs MacClarty. "There has been lang a hole in the milk sythe, and I have never been at the fash to get it mended; But as I tak ay care to sythe the milk through my fingers, I wonder how sae mony hairs win in."

"Ye need na wonder at that," observed Grizzel, "for the house canna be soopit but the dirt flees into the kirn."

"But do you not clean the churn before you put in the cream?" asked Mrs Mason, more and more astonished.

"Na, na," returned Mrs MacClarty, "That wad no' be canny, ye ken. Naebody hereabouts would clean their kirn, for ony consideration. I never heard o' f;ic a thing i' my life."