“And did the dear bairn grieve sae for me? Oh! what it is to hear the voices of ye all again, and to see your faces glinting down on me like the blessed sunbeams on my withered heart; it was for this I prayed and for this I toiled, as my puir blistered feet can testify; but it is a strength that I have nought to do with that has brought me to see this day; and now that the life seems in me again, in a measure, I would fain ken where I am. Is it your house, Mistress Nurse, that they have brought me to, and I making sae free, lying in your ain bed, wi’ thae bonnie genty white curtains, and all sae clean and comfortable about me, and never sae much as a word o’ thanks? you will think I hae left my manners in the sea--but we will no speak o’ that awfu’ element.” “But, Peggy,” Selina whispered, “it’s not Nurse’s house--it is your own; and Cousin Leila told her papa every thing she thought you would like.” “Yes,” Matilda added, “and there are peats in a box behind the door; and you have not seen the kitchen yet, with the walnut-tree table, and cupboard, and the cuckoo clock--all is for you--it is your own house.” “My own house,” Peggy repeated, as clasping her hands together in deep emotion, she added, “O what am I, that such blessings should be showered upon me, when He whom I serve ‘had not where to lay His head!’ O my bairns! help me to praise Him, who has brought me out o’ much tribulation, for my mind’s weak and head sair confused. Could you no’ tak’ the book--it’s the Psalms o’ David that could speak weel for me at sic a moment.” “No, Peggy,” Nurse said; “that must not be: God looks to the heart. He knows all your gratitude to Him--but you are more exhausted than I ever saw mortal being, and it’s peace and quietness you want; you must try to sleep, and the young ladies will be gude bairns, (as you call them,) and go quietly home--they will come to see you again to-morrow, when you will be more able to speak to them of your mercies, for, surely, it has been a great deliverance.” “And may I not stay with Peggy?” Leila said. “No, Miss Leila, no; Peggy will be better alone with me; and as she will require a little nourishment now and then, and it will need my experience to know how much, I will watch by her till the evening; I am sure my master will spare me on such an occasion; and you may say, that if it is his pleasure to allow Amy to step down when I leave, and stay this first night with Peggy, I think it is all she will require.”