Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/57

 winter we had time to sit down to our needles in the evening, and in summer generally contrived to get a walk as far as the dairy.

I was a year and a half under Molly, and thought it a happy time; for though I worked hard, I got health and spirits, and was as gay as a lark. When Molly was going to be married, she desired the housekeeper to ask my lady to permit me to be her bridemaid. We were both called into my lady's room, when she repeated the request; and taking me by the hand, "It is but justice," says she, "to tell your ladyship, how this lassie has behaved. I thought when she began, she never would have made a servant, because she never had been used to it; but I soon found she had a willing mind, and that was every thing. She has been greater help to me, than some that were twice her age; and in the eighteen months she has been with me, she has never disappointed me by any neglect, nor ever told