"Just to make the thing clear, let us suppose an example. Now, then, supposin', for instance, that Thora here saw a basin full o' milk with thick cream on the top o' it, and that her teeth were watering for just one lick. She ought to say to herself: 'Now, here's a basin full o' good cream; I'd like fine to take one lick of it. But it's the cream for making the butter of. Now, supposin' I was your mother, how would I like my daughter Thora to come and--'" "Oh! Look, look!" cried Thora, "pussy's tail's burnin'!" "Confound you, Thora!" exclaimed her father, angered at this interruption. "Can you not pay attention, and let pussy mind her own tail? I say, if you were your mother, how would you like your daughter Thora to lick the cream?" "Tut, goodman!" interposed Mrs. Kinlay, "what does the lass ken about being a mother? Go on with the reading." "Odd, goodwife, I'm but supposin' the thing; and the plainer it is the better, and the easier to understand. However, what verse was it, Thora?" "It was the fourteenth you left off at," said Thora. "Aweel, then, the fifteenth: 'Now, when he'--Odd, but I think we read that before." "Nay, you didna read it before, father, for it was the fourteenth verse you left off at." "Nay, I'm sure it couldn't be that, for I remember readin' 'Now, when he,' before." "But I'm sure, father, ye're wrong," persisted Thora. "Look you if the fourteenth doesn't end with 'people,' and 'people' was the last word you read." "'People, people!'" said Carver, searching for the place. "Odd, lassie, I see no 'people.' There's one verse that ends with 'people,' but it's not the fourteenth. It had been that, ye silly lass, instead o' the fourteenth." "Well, well, goodman, what dos't matter what verse you left off at," said his wife. "A good tale's none the worse of being told twice." "Nay, but," said Thora, "just look for fun and see what the fourteenth verse ends with." "Fun, lassie! fun!" exclaimed Carver, as though he was seriously shocked. "Would you speak o' fun and the Holy Scripture lying open before you?" "O, but, father, I had no mind. A body canna aye be minding. Look and see not for fun, then." "Tut, tut!" said the mother, becoming impatient, "can you not begin at the fifteenth verse? What dos't matter if ye read it before?" "Aweel, then, the fifteenth verse, 'Now, when he'"-- "Listen, father!" cried Thora, again interrupting, "did you not hear something?" "Well did I hear something, and I hear it yet--the rain pelting on the window. I'm sure you've heard it this two hours and more." "Nay, but it was like something twirling at the handle of the door." "You hear things nobody else hears, Thora. Who could be at the door on a day like this? You just think you hear things. I was sure 'people' was not the last word."