Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/222

 clarted wi' parritch, but it was weel dried on, and ye wadna' been a bit the war."

"But are the boards the worse for being scoured?" asked Mrs Mason; "or would they have been the worse, if they had been scoured when you took them from the chickens, or, while they were feeding on them?"

"O, to be sure it wad ha' been an easy matter to ha' scour't them then, if we had thought of being at the fash," returned Mrs MacClarty.

"In my opinion," rejoined Mrs Mason "this fear of being fashed is the great bar to all improvement. I have seen this morning, that you are not afraid of work, for you have exerted yourself with a degree of activity that no one could excel; yet you dread the small additional trouble that would make your house chearful, clean, and comfortable. You dread the trouble of attention, more than the labour of your hands; and thus, if I mistake not, you often bring upon yourself trouble,