Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/109

92, will help us up in front, and then "—Roy came to a pause abruptly, for a figure stood at the door. It was Eppie, carrying something on a plate. She came towards them and peered through the dusk into the two little white, tear-stained faces.

"Ye 're not sleepin' yet? Ay, I thought as much! An' greetin' [crying], the two of ye! That's apoor beginning: it winna do, lads, it winna do!" She put her warm, kind arms round the boys, and drew the two curly heads down against her merino bodice; and this time they did not pull away from the embrace, but leaned gratefully on that friendly bosom and cried.

"Ye dinna look to see what I brought ye," she said in her low, soft voice, in a few minutes. Her accent, though not so refined, reminded Roy and Willie of their mother's. It made them feel at home with Eppie.