She went out to the byre, still with the baby in her arms, and saw Sanders Elshioner sitting gloomily on the pigsty.
"Weel, Bell," said Sanders.
"I thocht ye'd been at the kirk, Sanders," said Bell.
Then there was a silence between them.
"Has Sam'l spiered ye, Bell ?" asked Sanders, stolidly.
"Ay," said Bell again, and this time there was a tear in her eye.
Sanders was little better than an "orra man," and Sam'l was a weaver, and yet---- But it was too late now.

Sanders gave the pig a vicious poke with a stick, and when it had ceased to grunt, Bell was back in the kitchen.

She had forgotten about the milk, however, and Sam'l only got water after all.
In after days, when the story of Bell's wooing was told, there were some who held that the circumstances would have almost justified the lassie in giving Sam'l the go-by.

But these perhaps forgot that her other lover was in the same predicament as the accepted one--that of the two, indeed, he was the more to blame, for he set off to T'nowhead on the Sabbath of his own accord, while Sam'l only ran after him.

And then there is no one to say for certain whether Bell heard of her suitors' delinquencies until Lisbeth's return from the kirk.