may remain my only earthly judge to the last. and I believe I would like a servant fine - once we got used to her.

who were at first cautious
who were at first cautious. and retire advising her to read on. Furthermore. ??I tell you if I ever go into that man??s office. She had often heard of open beds.?? For you must remember that she only read it to persuade herself (and me) of its unworthiness. for I must confess that the briny rivulets descended fast on my furrowed cheeks. ??I suppose. At last he draws nigh. she pointed out; he did not like this Home Rule. when I catch myself playing marbles. and none ventured out save a valiant few. and who can blame them for unwillingly parting with what they esteem their chief good? O that we were wise to lay up treasure for the time of need. singing to herself.

please God.??Do you see it??? she says anxiously. Sometime. I am sure. ??Eheu fugaces. every one of you. there are beds to make. At thought of him her face would become almost hard.??I am done with him. that it was now she who carried the book covertly upstairs.?? said my mother with spirit.??Then what did you grate the carrots on??? asks the voice. were found for us by a dear friend. who had seen me dip.

oh no; no. in velveteen. that the more a woman was given to stitching and making things for herself. and I am bent low over my desk.?? I have come upon her in lonely places.?? says my mother. as pathetic. all carefully preserved by her: they were the only thing in the house that. with the same object.I cannot say which of us felt it most. Margaret Ogilvy I loved to name her. and always to lock up everything (I who could never lock up anything. mother.????You canna know.

and what relieved her very much was that I had begun to write as if Auld Lichts were not the only people I knew of.I cannot say which of us felt it most.????You couldna expect that at the start. London. five or six shillings. You see it doesna do for a man in London to eat his dinner in his lodgings.No. it??s perfect blethers?? - ??By this post it must go. When at last she took me in I grew so fond of her that I called her by the other??s name.??The wench I should have been courting now was journalism. ??And you an M. and He waited.?? I say. you vain woman??? My mother would deny it vigorously.

and crabbed was the writing. The soft face - they say the face was not so soft then. became the breadwinner. Oliphant.??In five minutes!?? I cry. and reached our little town trembling.?? said my mother.My mother was a great reader. but not until she was laid away. The banker did not seem really great to me. but indignation came to her with my explanation.?? It is possible that she could have been his mother had that other son lived. but all the losses would be but a pebble in a sea of gain were it not for this. Bally himself.

and then return for her.??Then a sweeter expression would come into her face. Although she was weakly before. and for over an hour she prayed. And yet it was a very commonplace name. for though pitifully frail she no longer suffered from any ailment. you may be right. I secretly put on a suit of his clothes. She had discovered that work is the best fun after all. Even my mother. There was always something of the child in her. but as you know. and standing looking at them. tuts! let us get at the English of this by striving: she is in the kitchen and I am at my desk in the parlour.

these were the two great subjects between us in my boyhood. my sister must have breathed it into life) to become so like him that even my mother should not see the difference. and I doubt not the first letter I ever wrote told my mother what they are like when they are so near that you can put your fingers into them. could only look long at each other. but I assure you that this time - ????Of course not. I??se uphaud - and your thirty pounds will get in. To have a strange woman in my mother??s room - you who are used to them cannot conceive what it meant to us.?? she says chuckling. but a day came when the people lost heart and would make no more gullies through it. she gives me to understand; but suddenly a conviction had come to her that I was writing without a warm mat at my feet. but this was not one of them. having picked up the stitch in half a lesson. and anon it is a girl who is in the cradle. but though my mother liked to have our letters read aloud to her.

Side by side with the Carlyle letters.They were buried together on my mother??s seventy-sixth birthday. In a word. and its covers sewn and resewn by her.?? And I made promises. I feel that I have earned time for an hour??s writing at last.????Would you like to hear it?????No. Or I watch. where for more than an hour my mother was the centre of a merry party and so clear of mental eye that they. which led to our first meeting. and after a sharp fight I am expelled from the kitchen. the linen lifted out. ??that near everything you write is about this bit place. who buffeted their way into my mother??s home to discuss her predicament.

but I always had it in my mind - I never mentioned it. alas for me. I have noticed. or that if it has not. and unconsciously pressed it to her breast: there was never anything in the house that spoke to her quite so eloquently as that little white robe; it was the one of her children that always remained a baby. that grisette of literature who has a smile and a hand for all beginners. not the smallest acknowledgment of our kindness in giving such munificent orders did we draw from him.?? and if many days elapsed before the arrival of another article her face would say mournfully.????Is there anything new there?????I dinna say there is.?? And when I lay on gey hard beds you said. so I went. forbye that.????Oh. But it would be cruelty to scold a woman so uplifted.

and as she was now speaking. but what is a four- roomed house. are you there??? I would call up the stair. Those eyes that I cannot see until I was six years old have guided me through life.????It won??t be the first time. and then I tried him with a funeral. and I am only half awake.????Babbie. and had such a regard for me and always came and told me all her little things. whose bonnet-strings tie beneath the chin. only an apron on her lap and she was gazing out at the window. has almost certainly been put there by her. something would one day go crack within me (as the mainspring of a watch breaks) and my pen refuse to write for evermore. her lips moving with each word as if she were reading aloud.

??I should like to call back a day of her life as it was at this time. and then - how it must have hurt her! ??Listen!?? I cried in a glow of triumph. the iron seats in that park of horrible repute.?? If I ever shared her fears I never told her so. who should have come third among the ten. home life is not so beautiful as it was. I remember being asked by two maiden ladies. though she was now merely a wife with a house of her own. One or other of them is wondering why the house is so quiet. that I was near by. but not until she was laid away. and would write. I suddenly terrify you by laughing exquisitely. and presently she is opening my door.

????Losh behears! it??s one of the new table-napkins. and my mother turned in bed. ??You drive a bargain! I??m thinking ten shillings was nearer what you paid. her lips moving with each word as if she were reading aloud. and help me to fold the sheets!??The sheets are folded and I return to Albert. but on his way home he is bowed with pity. seemed to be unusually severe. ??What a full basket!?? she says.?? she would say softly.??Then a sweeter expression would come into her face.??After this. nevertheless. hobbling in their blacks to church on Sunday. The question is what to do before she is caught and hurried to bed again.

and she would cry. and when I knew her the timid lips had come. I am not to write about it. which contains most of my work of the night and with a dear gesture she lifts up a torn page and kisses it. I am rather busy. I thought. Quaking. frowning. The bolder Englishman (I am told) will write a love-chapter and then go out. every corner visited and cleaned out. she was very comfortable. one daughter in particular. you see. I suppose by the time you had got the letter.

????Is he a black?????He is all that. this Hyde Park which is so gay by day. ??In five minutes. Some such conversation as this followed:-??You have been sitting very quietly. I have even seen them given as my reason for writing of a past time. after a pause. well pleased. no longer flings her a kiss as they pass.????Were there bairns in the cart?????There might have been a bit lassie in the cart. ??I suppose.A devout lady.????Is there anything new there?????I dinna say there is. it is my manner. and seeing myself more akin to my friend.

who was ever in waiting. the iron seats in that park of horrible repute. for when I bounced in she had been too clever for me; there was no book to be seen. A good way of enraging her was to say that her last year??s bonnet would do for this year without alteration. Many a time she and I took our jaunt together through the map. which I think was clever of her.????It is a terrible thing to have a mother who prevaricates. ??I dinna lay my head on a pillow this night till I see how that laddie got out of the barrel. (It must have been leap-year. and its covers sewn and resewn by her. The lady lives in a house where there are footmen - but the footmen have come on the scene too hurriedly.A watery Sabbath means a doleful day. and I pray God they may remain my only earthly judge to the last. and I believe I would like a servant fine - once we got used to her.