The Clever Woman of the Family

"Nay, Tibbie, if you find fault with such a sweet, winning young

creature, I shall think it is all because you will not endure a mistress

at Gowanbrae over you."

"His lordship'll please himsel' wi' a leddy to be mistress o' Gowanbrae,

but auld Tibbie'll never cross the doorstane mair."

"Indeed you will, Tibbie; here are my brother's orders that you should

go down, as soon as you can conveniently make ready, and see about the

new plenishing."

"They may see to the plenishing that's to guide it after han, an'

that'll no be me. My lord'll behove to tak' his orders aff his young

leddy ance he's married on her, may be a whilie afore, but that's no to

bind ither folk, an' it's no to be thought that at my years I'm to be

puttin' up wi' a' ther new fangled English fykes an' nonsense maggots.

Na, na, Maister Colin, his lordship'll fend weel aneugh wantin' Tibbie;

an' what for suld I leave yerself, an' you settin' up wi' a house o'

yer ain? Deed an' my mind's made up, I'll e'en bide wi' ye, an' nae mair

about it."

"Stay, stay," cried Colin, a glow coming into his cheeks, "don't reckon

without your host, Tibbie. Do you think Gowanbrae the second is never to

have any mistress but yourself?"

"Haud awa' wi' ye, laddie, I ken fine what ye'ra ettlin' at, but yon's a

braw leddy, no like thae English folk, but a woman o' understandin', an'

mair by token I'm thinkin' she'll be gleg aneugh to ken a body that'll

serve her weel, an' see to the guidin' o' thae feckless queens o'

servant lasses, for bad's the best o' them ye'll fin' hereawa'. Nae

fear but her an' me'll put it up weel thegither, an' a' gude be wi' ye

baith."

After this Colin resigned himself and his household to Tibbie's somewhat

despotic government, at least for the present. To Ermine's suggestion

that her appellation hardly suited the dignity of her station, he

replied that Isabel was too romantic for southern ears, and that her

surname being the same as his own, he was hardly prepared to have the

title of Mrs. Keith pre-occupied. So after Mrs. Curtis's example, the

world for the most part knew the colonel's housekeeper as Mrs. Tibbs.

She might be a tyrant, but liberties were taken with her territory; for

almost the first use that the colonel made of his house was to ask a

rheumatic sergeant, who had lately been invalided, to come and benefit

by the Avonmouth climate. Scottish hospitality softened Tibbie's heart,

and when she learnt that Sergeant O'Brien had helped to carry Master

Colin into camp after his wound, she thought nothing too good for him.

The Colonel then ventured to add to the party an exemplary consumptive

tailor from Mr. Mitchell's parish, who might yet be saved by good

living and good air. Some growls were elicited, but he proved to be

so deplorably the ninetieth rather than the ninth part of a man, that

Tibbie made it her point of honour to fatten him; and the sergeant

found him such an intelligent auditor of the Indian exploits of the

--th Highlanders that mutual respect was fully established, and high

politeness reigned supreme, even though the tailor could never be

induced to delight in the porridge, on which the sergeant daily

complimented the housekeeper in original and magnificent metaphors.