occasion, for, as she sat sliding on the heap of grain near which he was busying himself, she said, at that shrill pitch which was requisite in mill society, 'I think you never read any book but the Bible--did you Luke?' 'Nay, miss--an' not much o' that,' said Luke, with great frankness. 'I'm no reader, I ain't.' 'But if I lent you one of my books, Luke? I've not got any _very_ pretty books that would be easy for you to read, but there's _Pug's Tour of Europe_--that would tell you all about the different sorts of people in the world, and if you didn't understand the reading, the pictures would help you--they show the looks and the ways of the people, and what they do. There are the Dutchmen, very fat, and smoking, you know--and one sitting on a barrel.' 'Nay, miss, I've no opinion o' Dutchmen. There ben't much good i' knowin' about _them_.' 'But they're our fellow-creatures, Luke--we ought to know about our fellow-creatures.' 'Not much o' fellow-creatures, I think, miss; all I know--my old master, as war a knowin' man, used to say, says he, 'If e'er I sow my wheat wi'out brinin', I'm a Dutchman,' says he; an' that war as much as to say as a Dutchman war a fool, or next door. Nay, nay, I arn't goin' to bother mysen about Dutchmen. There's fools enoo--an' rogues enoo--wi'out lookin' i' books for 'em.' 'Oh, well,' said Maggie, rather foiled by Luke's unexpectedly decided views about Dutchmen, 'perhaps you would like _Animated Nature_ better; that's not Dutchmen, you know, but elephants, and kangaroos, and the civet cat, and the sunfish, and a bird sitting on its tail--I forget its name. There are countries full of those creatures, instead of horses and cows, you know. Shouldn't you like to know about them, Luke?' 'Nay, miss, I'n got to keep count o' the flour an' corn--I can't do wi' knowin' so many things besides my work. That's what brings folks to the gallows--knowin' every thing but what they'n got to get their bread by--An' they're mostly lies, I think, what's printed i' the books; them printed sheets are, anyhow, as the men cry i' the streets.'