"Haud thy bletherin' gab," Wilson said one day; "because ye have to be cannie wi' the cream ye think ye must surely be clemm'd." Salutary as some of the Scotsman's comments may have been, it was natural that the change in his manners should excite surprise among the dalespeople.

The good people expressed themselves as "fairly maizelt" by the transformation.
What did it all mean?
There was surely something behind it.
The barbarity of Wilson's speech was especially malicious when directed against the poor folks with whom he lived, and who, being conscious of how essential he was to the stability of the household, were largely at his mercy.

It happened on one occasion that when Wilson returned to the cottage after a day's absence, he found Sim's daughter weeping over the fire.
"What's now ?" he asked.

"Have ye nothing in the kail ?" Rotha signified that his supper was ready.
"Thou limmer," said Wilson, in his thin shriek, "how long 'ul thy dool last?
It's na mair to see a woman greet than to see a goose gang barefit." Ralph Ray called at the tailor's cottage the morning after this, and found Sim suffering under violent excitement, of which Wilson's behavior to Rotha had been the cause.

The insults offered to himself he had taken with a wince, perhaps, but without a retort.