I will be wae to hear o' your affliction, and blithe to hear o' your prosperity, temporal and spiritual.

But I canna prefer the commands of an earthly mistress to those of a heavenly master, and sae I am e'en ready to suffer for righteousness' sake." "It is very well," said Lady Margaret, turning her back in great displeasure; "ye ken my will, Mause, in the matter.

I'll hae nae whiggery in the barony of Tillietudlem--the next thing wad be to set up a conventicle in my very withdrawing room." Having said this, she departed, with an air of great dignity; and Mause, giving way to feelings which she had suppressed during the interview,--for she, like her mistress, had her own feeling of pride,--now lifted up her voice and wept aloud.
Cuddie, whose malady, real or pretended, still detained him in bed, lay perdu during all this conference, snugly ensconced within his boarded bedstead, and terrified to death lest Lady Margaret, whom he held in hereditary reverence, should have detected his presence, and bestowed on him personally some of those bitter reproaches with which she loaded his mother.

But as soon as he thought her ladyship fairly out of hearing, he bounced up in his nest.
"The foul fa' ye, that I suld say sae," he cried out to his mother, "for a lang-tongued clavering wife, as my father, honest man, aye ca'd ye! Couldna ye let the leddy alane wi' your whiggery?
And I was e'en as great a gomeral to let ye persuade me to lie up here amang the blankets like a hurcheon, instead o' gaun to the wappen-schaw like other folk.

Odd, but I put a trick on ye, for I was out at the window-bole when your auld back was turned, and awa down by to hae a baff at the popinjay, and I shot within twa on't.