“Well, never mind, darling,” said Jeannie; “but, lor, if he had only asked my price I would have jumped at the offer.”
Chapter Two.
“There is Danger in the Sky.”
“What!” said Annie Lane, “would you really marry an old man?”
“Ay, that would I,” said the maid. “He’s got the money. Besides, he is not so very old. But let me sing a bit of a song to you—very quietly, you know.”
Jeannie Lee had a sweet voice, and when she sang low, and to Annie alone, it was softer and sweeter still, like a fiddle with a mute on the bridge. This is the little song she sang:
“What can a young lassie, what shall a young lassie,
What can a young lassie do with an old man?
Bad luck on the penny that tempted my minnie
To sell her poor Jenny for silver and land.
“He’s always complaining from morning till eenin’,
He coughs and he hobbles the weary day long;
He’s stupid, and dozin’, his blood it is frozen—
Oh! dreary’s the night wi’ a crazy old man!
“He hums and he hankers, he frets and he cankers—
I never can please him, do all that I can;
He’s peevish and jealous of all the young fellows—
Oh! grief on the day I met wi’ an old man!
“My old Aunty Kitty upon me takes pity:
I’ll do my endeavour to follow her plan;
I’ll cross him and rack him until I heart-break him,
And then his old brass will buy a new pan!”
“But, oh, how cruel!” said Annie. “Oh, I wish you would marry that Laird Fletcher—then he would bother me no more. Will you, Jeannie, dear?”