A Daughter of Fife

She told him everything--where she had spent the time since they parted

--how good Miss Campbell had been to her--how impossible it would have

been to desert her in an hour of such need and peril--how much she had

suffered in her broken tryst, and how longingly and lovingly she would

wait for him at Drumloch, though she waited there until the end of her

life. "And every year," she added, "I'll be, if God let me, in Pittenloch

on the 29th of August, dear Allan;" for she thought it likely he might

come again at that time next year.

Into Mysie's hand this letter was given with many injunctions of secrecy

and care. And then Maggie sat down to eat, and to talk over the minor

details of David's and Allan's visits; and the changes which had occurred

in her native village since she left it. "I dinna want you to say I hae

been here, Mysie. I'll get awa' at the dinner hour, and nane will be the

wiser. I can do nae gude to any one, and I'll maybe set folks wondering

and talking to ill purpose."

"I can hold my whist, Maggie; if it's your will, I'll no speak your name.

And I hope I hae keepit a' things to your liking in the cottage. If sae,

you might gie me a screed o' writing to your brither, sae that when he

comes again, he'll be contented, and willing to let me bide on here."

"I'll do that gladly, Mysie. Hoo is a' wi' you anent wark and siller?"

"I get on, Maggie; and there's a few folk do mair than that; forbye,

Maister Campbell's five pounds will get me many a bit o' comfort this

winter."

"Hoo much weekly does Davie allow you for the caretaking?"

"He didna speak to me himsel'. He left Elder Mackelvine to find some

decent body wha wad be glad o' the comfortable shelter, and the elder gied

me the favor."

"Dinna you hae some bit o' siller beside frae Davie?"

"Na, na; I dinna expect it. The hame pays for the care o' it."

"But I'll hae to pay you for the care o' my letter, Mysie, for I can weel

afford it. I'll gie you two pounds for the next three months; and at the

beginning o' every quarter you'll find the two pounds at the minister's

for you. He'll gie it, or he'll send it to you by the elder."

"I dinna like to be paid for a kindness, Maggie. The young man was gude to

me, and I'd do the kind turn to him gladly."

"Weel, Mysie, David ought to hae minded the bit siller to you, and he wad

dootless hae done it, if he hadna been bothered oot o' his wits wi' Aunt

Janet. Sae, I'm only doing the duty for him. Davie isna mean, he is just

thochtless anent a' things outside o' his college, or his books."