A Window in Thrums | Page 7

mind ye. Always address her as Mistress
Curly."
"Shak' hands wi' baith o' them, an' say ye hope they're in the enjoyment
o' guid health."
"Dinna put yer feet on the table."
"Mind, you're no' to mention 'at ye kent they were in the toon."
"When onybody passes ye yer tea say, 'Thank ye.'"
"Dinna stir yer tea as if ye was churnin' butter, nor let on 'at the scones
is no our am bakin'."
"If Tibbie says onything aboot the china yer no' to say 'at we dinna use
it ilka day."
"Dinna lean back in the big chair, for it's broken, an' Leeby's gi'en it a
lick o' glue this meenute."
"When Leeby gies ye a kick aneath the table that'll be a sign to ye to
say grace."
Hendry looked at me apologetically while these instructions came up.
"I winna dive my head wi' sic nonsense," he said; "it's no' for a man
body to be sae crammed fu' o' manners."
"Come awa doon," Jess shouted to him, "an' put on a clean dickey."
"I'll better do't to please her," said Hendry, "though for my ain part I
dinna like the feel o' a dickey on week-days. Na, they mak's think it's

the Sabbath."
Ten minutes afterwards I went downstairs to see how the preparations
were progressing. Fresh muslin curtains had been put up in the room.
The grand footstool, worked by Leeby, was so placed that Tibbie could
not help seeing it; and a fine cambric handkerchief, of which Jess was
very proud, was hanging out of a drawer as if by accident. An
antimacassar lying carelessly on the seat of a chair concealed a rent in
the horse-hair, and the china ornaments on the mantelpiece were so
placed that they looked whole. Leeby's black merino was hanging near
the window in a good light, and Jess's Sabbath bonnet, which was never
worn, occupied a nail beside it. The tea-things stood on a tray in the
kitchen bed, whence they could be quickly brought into the room, just
as if they were always ready to be used daily. Leeby, as yet in
deshabille, was shaving her father at a tremendous rate, and Jess,
looking as fresh as a daisy, was ready to receive the visitors. She was
peering through the tiny window-blind looking for them.
"Be cautious, Leeby," Hendry was saying, when Jess shook her hand at
him. "Wheesht," she whispered; "they're comin'."
Hendry was hustled into his Sabbath coat, and then came a tap at the
door, a very genteel tap. Jess nodded to Leeby, who softly shoved
Hendry into the room.
The tap was repeated, but Leeby pushed her father into a chair and
thrust Barrow's Sermons open into his hand. Then she stole but the
house, and swiftly buttoned her wrapper, speaking to Jess by nods the
while. There was a third knock, whereupon Jess said, in a loud,
Englishy voice--
"Was that not a chap (knock) at the door?"
Hendry was about to reply, but she shook her fist at him. Next moment
Leeby opened the door. I was upstairs, but I heard Jess say--
"Dear me, if it's not Mrs. Curly--and Mr. Curly! And hoo are ye? Come
in, by. Weel, this is, indeed, a pleasant surprise!"

CHAPTER IV
WAITING FOR THE DOCTOR
Jess had gone early to rest, and the door of her bed in the kitchen was
pulled to. From her window I saw Hendry buying dulse.
Now and again the dulseman wheeled his slimy boxes to the top of the
brae, and sat there stolidly on the shafts of his barrow. Many passed
him by, but occasionally some one came to rest by his side. Unless the
customer was loquacious, there was no bandying of words, and Hendry
merely unbuttoned his east-trouser pocket, giving his body the angle at
which the pocket could be most easily filled by the dulseman. He then
deposited his half-penny, and moved on. Neither had spoken; yet in the
country they would have roared their predictions about to-morrow to a
ploughman half a field away.
Dulse is roasted by twisting it round the tongs fired to a red-heat, and
the house was soon heavy with the smell of burning sea-weed. Leeby
was at the dresser munching it from a broth-plate, while Hendry, on his
knees at the fireplace, gingerly tore off the blades of dulse that were
sticking to the tongs, and licked his singed fingers.
"Whaur's yer mother?" he asked Leeby.
"Ou," said Leeby, "whaur would she be but in her bed?"
Hendry took the tongs to the door, and would have cleaned them
himself, had not Leeby (who often talked his interfering ways over with
her mother) torn them from his hands.
"Leeby!" cried Jess at that moment.
"Ay," answered Leeby, leisurely, not