She closed the book as if she could not trust herself to look at it while others were looking at her, and said with a sigh: "Eh, mem! Ye wonna lippen them _baith_ to me ?" "Yes, I will," said Miss Cowie.

"I am sure you will take care of them." "_That--I--will_," returned Annie, with an honesty and determination of purpose that made a great impression upon Mr Cowie especially.

And she ran home with a feeling of richness of possession such as she had never before experienced.
Her first business was to scamper up to her room, and hide the precious treasures in her _kist_, there to wait all night, like the buried dead, for the coming morning.
When she confessed to Mr Bruce that she had had tea with the minister, he held up his hands in the manner which commonly expresses amazement; but what the peculiar character or ground of the amazement might be remained entirely unrevealed, for he said not a word to elucidate the gesture.
The next time Annie went to see the minister it was on a very different quest from the loan of a song-book..