"I think we should have sent for him," said Belle.
"I think sae myself," said Davie.
"Annie, ye gang and write a letter till him right awa," said the mother.
Annie promptly obeyed, going into another room, and the conversation continued. They talked without restraint, for if their father should wake he was too deaf to understand ordinary conversation.
"I fear it isna possible for Jamie to come in time to see his faither alive," said Belle.
"I think he willna live the week oot," said Davie.
The mother sat with closed eyes and folded hands. "Jamie was aye fond o' his faither; he was aye a gude lad," she said, thinking aloud.
"Ay, he was that, and his gude fortune hasna spoiled him, either," replied Isabel.
"It would be hard to spoil Jamie, I think," said Davie. "I often thought o' that when I was wi' him in Edinburgh; for he introduced me to a' his grand freends. To be sure, I made my best boo; but ye ken weel I am no like Jamie."
"Weel, ye needna be. The warld maun hae pleughmen as weel as scholars," said his wife.