“Weel, my bairns,” she exclaimed, “you hae surely entered into a compact to spoil the auld woman all thegither. If there was a wish in my heart, amang all the grand things, and the wonderfu’ blessings that surround me, it was for a bee’s skep; it is no’ to be told the love I hae for thae creatures, they will be friends to me, and company to me, and example too, for they are a weel principled, upright set, never leaving their ain house, but for the useful work o’ the day; and sae blythe and contented, for a constant singing that bonnie sang amang the flowers, that’s just music to my ears. Can ony mortal man, or woman either, hae a pleasanter employment than just to sit down afore a bee’s skep, and tak observation o’ their wonderfu’ ways? and is there nae honourable mention made o’ the work o’ their hands in the very Bible itsel’, Deuteronomy thirty-second chapter, thirteenth verse: ‘He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the incense of the fields, and he made him to suck honey out of the rock.’ And in the eighty-second Psalm, sixteenth verse: ‘He should have fed them also with the finest of wheat, and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.’ Na, na, it’s no thae jams and jellies, and sic articles o’ man’s contrivance, that ye hear tell o’ them, but it’s the handiwork o’ thae wonderfu’ creatures that’s had in honour; and I maun just end, as I began, and say to you, my dear bairns, that you could na hae given me a greater compliment than this bonnie bee’s skep.” “But, Peggy,” Matilda observed, “we did not give it you, it was Cousin Leila; she saved up her money to buy it for you; we only came to see your joy.” “Oh, but it is a dear bairn,” Peggy said, looking fondly at Leila, “and sae generous, and sae thoughtfu’ for her years. Weel, I am no just the woman I was, for my head’s often unco confused now, and my memory’s no o’ the best since that fearfu’ journey; but surely I’ll forget my ainsel, afore I forget all she has done for me.” “Don’t say that,” Leila said anxiously, “don’t say you are not just the same; you are looking as well as you ever did now, and you must be quite happy and cheery,--I don’t like to see you look grave. We have never been grave since you came back, every day as merry and cheery as can be; and you have never told us yet if you saw all your friends in comfort before you came away from Scotland, and if you enjoyed yourself with them very much.”