She instantly obeyed, touching me lightly on one cheek. Then in an earnest little voice she said, "Mr. Jack, I'm so glad you have come home. How I have missed you these four years!"
"If I had dreamed that you had grown to be so beautiful," I said teasingly, "I'd have come home sooner."
She glanced at me quickly and seriously. "Oh, I've forgotten my cream and it's time for breakfast," she said hastily, and ran back down the path.
"I should say so, Marget," I said. "How hungry I am!"
"It's good to be here again," I added, as I sat down to the little table; "and, Tammas, there is Elsie back with the cream. Put on some of that clotted cream in the pot, cream thick, for it is a long lost brother that I've been separated from."
"Ay, but the cottage cheese. Don't forget that is your appetizer," cried Marget authoritatively, as she pushed a great saucer, flaked up to white foaminess, toward me.
For answer I fell to.
"Hold!" cried Tammas, his hand going up and the great fun-loving mouth changing to quick solemnity. Often as a boy I had seen his hand raised most unexpectedly, and never had I failed to obey. My head bent. Then Tammas, his great knotted hand uplifted, prayed in Scotch, as was his wont:
"'Oh, Thou wha kindly dost provide,
For every creature's want!
We bless Thee, God o' Nature wide,
For a' Thy goodness lent:
An' gin it please Thee, heavenly guide,
May never waur be sent;
But whether granted or denied,
Lord, bless us wi' content!'
And to-day thanks be added, greatest of all, that our Jackie is with us again. Amen!"