‘We’re deep as the best o’ them, fadder,’ says I.
They packed up ae sark, Sunday weascwoat, twee neckcloths,
Wot bannock, cauld dumplin’, and top stannin’ pye;”
Again the voices were lost in the turning of the road, and presently, as they shot out once more, they might be heard singing in full chorus—
“Ca’ and see cousin Jacep, he’s got a’ the money;
He’ll get thee some guver’ment pleace to be seer.”
At last, all was still—but scarcely more still than when the whole of the cottages were filled with their little families, for the village, though now utterly deserted, would have seemed to the stranger to have been as thickly populated and busy as ever.
CHAPTER III.
“Heaste, Jenny! put the bairns to bed,