CHAPTER XXVII.
A VOICE.
That winter the old people were greatly tried with rheumatism; for not only were the frosts severe, but there was much rain between.
Their children did all in their power to minister to their wants, and Gibbie was nurse as well as shepherd.

He who when a child had sought his place in the live universe by attending on drunk people and helping them home through the midnight streets, might have felt himself promoted considerably in having the necessities of such as Robert and Janet to minister to, but he never thought of that.

It made him a little mournful sometimes to think that he could not read to them.

Janet, however, was generally able to read aloud.

Robert, being also asthmatic, suffered more than she, and was at times a little impatient.
Gibbie still occupied his heather-bed on the floor, and it was part of his business, as nurse, to keep up a good fire on the hearth: peats, happily, were plentiful.