Their acquaintance with the cottagers in the vicinity had been very slight, and limited to trifling acts of good neighbourhood.

Jeanie knew little of them, and what she knew did not greatly incline her to trust any of them.

They were of the order of loquacious good-humoured gossips usually found in their situation of life; and their conversation had at all times few charms for a young woman, to whom nature and the circumstance of a solitary life had given a depth of thought and force of character superior to the frivolous part of her sex, whether in high or low degree.
Left alone and separated from all earthly counsel, she had recourse to a friend and adviser, whose ear is open to the cry of the poorest and most afflicted of his people.

She knelt, and prayed with fervent sincerity, that God would please to direct her what course to follow in her arduous and distressing situation.

It was the belief of the time and sect to which she belonged, that special answers to prayer, differing little in their character from divine inspiration, were, as they expressed it, "borne in upon their minds" in answer to their earnest petitions in a crisis of difficulty.