'I was about to remark, my dear,' resumed the moralist, putting an arm round the waist of the girl, who became flushed, and who trembled violently, 'that we should take care of the beginnings of sin; but as the divine Wilson remarks, "nobody is exceedingly nicked all at once;" thus I might kiss you, as I do now—so might a young man; but I do so, with all the emotions of a father stirred within me—yes Minnie, the emotions of a father, an elder, and a factor; yet were a young man to do this, as the divine Blair remarks——'
'But about my uncle's farm?' urged poor Minnie, in great perplexity; 'we have long expected a rich cousin from India, where, as his letters said, his fortune and his liver were growing larger every day; but he has never appeared—and then my uncle omitted to sow his corn last year in such a way as to save it from the birds and fairies.'
It was now Mr. Snaggs' turn to look perplexed.
'From the fairies?' said he.
'Yes—for after a field is sown, our farmers mix some grain and sand together, and scatter it broadcast, saying at every handful, "the sand for the fairies, and the corn for the birds;" and those mixed grains become all that the birds and fairies take. But the minister told him that this was a sinful superstition—so the crop rotted in the ground, or was destroyed between the Marquis's grouse and the mildew.'
'Hush—did you not hear something stir among these bushes?' said Snaggs, with alarm, as Callum raised, and ducked down his head suddenly; 'pooh! a polecat or a blackcock—listen to me, Minnie; I am always kind to you, whatever the glensmen may say of me.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Seldom is there a time, that I come over the hills from Inverness, without bringing something for you—a ribbon, a rosette, a gaud or a gown-piece—eh.'
'True, sir—and many, many thanks for your kindness to a poor girl like me.'
'Not at all—not at all, when she is so sweet and pretty, Minnie.'