Greno House, Grenoside, Sheffield.
October 26, 1881.
Dearest Aunt Horatia,
D. says you would like some of the excellent Scotch stories I heard from Mr. Donald Campbell. I wish I could take the wings of a swallow and tell you them. You must supply gaps from your imagination.
They were as odd a lot of tales as I ever heard—drawled (oh so admirably drawled, without the flutter of an eyelid, or the quiver of a muscle) by a Lowland Scotchman, and queerly characteristic of the Lowland Scotch race!!!! Picture this slow phlegmatic rendering to your "mind's eye, Horatia!"
A certain excellent woman after a long illness—departed this life, and the Minister went to condole with the Widower. "The Hand of affliction has been heavy on yu, Donald. Ye've had a sair loss in your Jessie."
"Aye—aye—I've had a sair loss in my Jessie—an' a heavy ex-pense."
A good woman lost her husband, and the Minister made his way to the court where she lived. He found her playing cards with a friend. But she was æquus ad occasionem—as Charlie says!—