"Ye see, Kirstin and me were at the schule thegither. Ye think Kirstin's younger-like than me? Ay, so she is. I was dux of the class and reading in the Bible, when Kirstin began wi' the question book; but we were at the schule thegither for a' that--there's maybe six or seven years between us. There were three of a family of them; their father had been a doctor--a wild, reckless, dissipated man, like what ower mony were, and the family was puir. I used to take them pieces when they were wee bairns--ye mind, Tammie?" "Ay," said the doleful Tammie, "ye see Johann has a pleasure in minding thae times, Miss Ross. It's different wi'a puir frail widow woman like me; the last year I was at the schule I was never dune wi' the toothache." "Kirstin was the auldest," said Miss Crankie, turning her back impatiently upon her sister, "and Patrick was next to her, and there was as bonnie a bit lassie as ever you saw, Miss Ross, that was the youngest of the three--she wasna like the young lady that was here yesterday--she was darker and mair womanlike; but eh! she was bonnie. "They had nae mother--Kirstin was like the mother of them. We used to laugh at her, when she was a wean of maybe twelve hersel, guiding the other twa like as if they had been her ain bairns; she was aye quiet and thoughtful. I was an uncommon grand hand at the bools mysel, and could throw the ba' as far as Robbie King the heckler--ye mind, Tammie?" "Ye threw't on my head yince and broke the skin," said the disconsolate invalid. "Eh, Miss Ross, the sore headaches I was trysted wi' when I was a bairn!" "I am saying there were three of them," interrupted Miss Crankie. "They had some bit annuity that keepit them scrimply, and by guid fortune the father died when Kirstin was about seventeen; so how she guided the siller I canna tell, or if there was a blessing on't like the widow's cruise that never toomed; but she keepit hersel and her little sister decent, and sent Patrick to the college wi' the rest. They had a cottage, and a guid big garden--she used to be aye working in the garden hersel. I believe they lived on greens and taties a' the week, and never had fleshmeat in the house but on the Sabbath-day, when Patrick was at hame. Mind, I'm only saying I _think_ that, for they were aye decently put on, and made a puir mouth to nobody. "Patrick was serving his time to be a doctor. He was dune wi' his studies, and was biding at hame for a rest, when a young gentleman that was heir of an auld property, on the ither side of Aberford, came into his fortune. Ye'll maybe have heard of him, Miss Ross--the poor, misguided, unhappy young lad--they ca'ed him Mr. Rutherford, of Redheugh." Anne could hardly restrain an involuntary start; she answered, as calmly as she could: "I have heard the name." "Ay, nae doubt--mony mair folk have heard his name than had ony occasion; it was his ain fault to be sure, but he was just a' the mair to be pitied for that."