“‘What’s this chair doing so far in the chimbley corner?’ said she.
“How glad I was there warn’t two there. The fact is, we never used but one, we was quite young, and it was always big enough for us both.
“Flora talked Gaelic as fast as hail, slipt off her shoes, sat down on it, put her feet to the fire, folded her arms across her bosom, laid her head back and looked so sweet and so winnin’ into mother’s face, and said, ‘cha n’eil Beurl’ (I have no English), and then proceeded in Gaelic—
“‘If you hadn’t sat in that place yourself, when you was young, I guess you wouldn’t be so awful scared at it, you old goose you.’
“I thought I never saw her look so lovely. Mother was not quite persuaded she was wrong after all. She looked all round agin, as if she was sure I was there, and then came towards the door where I was, so I sloped up-stairs like a shadow on the wall, and into bed in no time; but she followed up and came close to me, and holdin the candle in my face, said:
“‘Sam, are you asleep?’
“Well, I didn’t answer.
“‘Sam,’ said she, ‘why don’t you speak?’ and she shook me.
“‘Hullo,’ sais I, pretendin’ to wake up, ‘what’s the matter! have I overslept myself? is it time to get up?’ and I put out my arm to rub my eyes, and lo and behold I exposed my coat sleeve.
“‘No, Sam,’ said she, ‘you couldn’t oversleep yourself, for you haven’t slept at all, you ain’t even ondressed.’