Mirren Douglas gave Muckle Alick a bit clap on the shoulder.
"Whiles ye are nane so stupid, man," she said, "I believe ye are richt."
"And he was on his road to Liverpool, too," added Alick, "for when he was oot o' his mind he cried on aboot that a' the time. And aye the owerword o' his sang was, 'She'll no get me in Liverpool!'"
His wife looked at Alick. And Muckle Alick looked at Mirren.
"We'll keep them awhile, onyway, till they can get a better hame. The lassie will soon be braw and handy," said Mirren.
"I'm thinkin'," said Alick, "that the flower-beds will hae to come up after a', and we'll plant taties if the porridge pot shows signs o' wearin' empty."
It was thus that our three wanderers found a place of lodgment in the wilderness in the kindly house of Sandyknowes.
"There's my sister Margaret up at Loch Spellanderie," said Mistress Fraser; "she was tellin' me on Monday that she was wantin' a lass. She's no very easy to leeve wi', I ken. But she will gie a guid wage, and the lass would get an insicht into country wark there. It micht be worth while thinkin' aboot."
"It is kind o' ye to think o't," said Mirren, doubtfully.
"O," replied Mistress Fraser, "I'm nane so sure o' that. As I tell ye, oor Meg is nane o' the easiest to serve. But, as the guid Buik says, it's a good and siccar lesson for the young to bear the yoke in their youth."