"Guid faith, it's a true sayin, 'The fat sow gets a' the draff,'" rejoined Janet. "It wad be lang or he did a turn like that for ony puir body like oorsels. The birkie doesna stand in need o' cash; for he gies saxpence to this ane, and a shillin to the tither ane, for gangin errans. He micht hae provided something for the waddin folks doun at Michael Crummie's, whase tred's no sae brisk noo, sin' that kick-up wi' him and the mason-lodge folk, wha swore he gied them up ill whusky--and that was maybe nae lee. He ne'er, since ever I mind, keepit the real stuff, like that o' mine. But see, Nelly, whatna puir, waebegone-lookin cratur's that comin alang the road, scarcely able to trail ae leg after anither? and a bairn, too, help us a'!" The object which drew the attention of the honest ale-wife was, as the reader may have already sagaciously conjectured, the same forlorn being whom May Darling and her lover had accidentally encountered. With a slow and faltering step she approached the village dames, and inquired of them how far it was from the town of H----. "Five miles guid," said Janet Baird, and continued--"But ye'll no think o' gaun there the nicht; it's gettin dark, and ye've mair need o' a while's rest; and maybe ye wadna be the waur o' something to support nature; for, wae's me! ye do look thin and hungert like! Tak her in by, Nelly, and I'll fetch her some cordial, as weel as a morsel to eat." So saying, she proceeded to her shop, for the purpose of making good her word, whilst Nelly followed up that part of the duty of relieving the stranger which devolved upon her, and conducted the "wearied one" into the interior of her humble domicile. "Ye'll hae travelled a gey bit the day, na, I sudna wonder?" said Nelly. "Yes," said the stranger, whom we shall now designate as Mrs B----. "Since morning I have prosecuted my journey with all the speed which want and weariness would permit of. But these were nothing, did I only know how it was to terminate." Meantime Janet had returned, bearing in her apron an ample stock of provisions; and, having heard the latter part of Mrs B----'s reply to Nelly, her curiosity was not a little excited to know something of her history. This she set about with the characteristic _pawkiness_ (there is no purely English word sufficiently expressive) of the Scotch--that style of speaking which is half-asking, half-answering a question; and she was successful in her endeavours. "It'll be the guidman that ye're gaun to meet at H----?" said Janet. "He'll be in the manufacturing line, nae doot; for there's little else dune there; and, indeed, that itsel has faun sair aff sin' that dirt o' machinery was brocht in to tak the bread oot o' the puir man's mou." "Yes--no; he is not in that line, nor do I know, indeed, if he is to be found there at all. But--but--excuse me, kind friends, for showing a little reserve touching one who----"