‘About a week after he left us, we had a letter frae him, wi’ an order for ten pounds in’t. It was his bounty. He said he was weel and happy, and begged that I would buy claes for mysel’ and Mary wi’ the siller. Although I was proud of his affection and his mindfu’ness, yet before I would have used a penny o’ that siller, I wad have starved. I couldna consider’t in ony light but as the price o’ his bluid. Mary saw what was passin’ in my mind when we read the letter—her feelings were the same as mine.—“I’ll tell you what we will do, mother,” said she, “we’ll put the siller in the bank, and we’ll work hard, and put something till’t if we can, and by the time that he comes hame again, he’ll hae forgotton a’ this business between Jessie and him, and we’ll buy his discharge, and get him hame beside us again.” I couldna help claspin’ my kind-hearted lassie to my bosom. “Weel, Mary, my dear, we’ll just do that, and we’ll maybe be a’ happy yet.” ‘The next letter we had frae Willie, he was in France wi’ the army? he had joined his regiment the day before a battle, and escaped without scaith. The neist we had frae him, he was in high spirits: “The war,” he said, “couldna be lang o’ bein’ ended, and he would see us again.” We were quite uplifted. We had added sae much to the ten pound we had in the bank by our hard workin’, that it was now nearhand twenty, and we were plannin’ how we would surprise him by gettin’ his discharge, when he cam hame. ‘We had gi’en up our house, intendin’ to remove to anither quarter o’ the town, to be awa frae Jessie and her friends; but that wasna necessar’. Jessie had been courtin’ wi’ the lad that she had gi’en up Willie for ever since he had gaen awa. It was reported for a lang while that they were to be married; but when a’ thing was prepared, and the day appointed, he set aff and wasna heard o’ for some weeks. They were in an awfu’ way about it, but at length they got word frae a near friend o’ his, that he had sailed for America wi’ his wife, having married anither lass twa or three days before he sailed. This was dreadfu’ news to poor Jessie, she couldna haud up her head after’t, and her father and mother removed to a different part of the country, takin’ her wi’ them—I hae ne’er heard what becam o’ them since. ‘Weel, as I was sayin’, we had every thing planned out, and waitin’ anxiously for anither letter. We had heard by the papers that the allied troops were marching for Paris; every day brought fresh news, until at length we saw the mail-coach rattle past our door wi’ flags fleein’. Peace, peace, was in ilka body’s mouth—every body that had friends in the army were rinnin’ frae door to door congratulating ane anither, and every body was overjoyed.