"She is unco' ginerous, surely; an' sae I telled Goodman Preston mysel'. She ha' a free han' at the givin',' quo' I. Deed ha' she,' says he. 'I dinna think,' he says, 'the Lord ever made a better or kinder woman than Mother Nurse. An' as to givin', he says, 'Why, we say at hame she'd give awa' the varry ears fra' her head, gin they wad kim off, an' any bodie wanted them.'"
"I almost think she would," said Alice, laughing. "But is he not pleasant? I am sorry I missed him."
"Varry pleasant—an unco' nice young mon. I wanted him to bide here till ye kim hame, but he said he could na'. He had business in the toon, he said, an' he must awa'. But he sat an hour or so, I think, an' he telled me mair about the terrible doin's at the village. Hey, sirs! but it's jist awfu'!"
"What did he tell you about it, grandmother? Do tell me what he said."
"Oh! Lord save us! he says it's dreadfu'. He ha' been to see the childer, an' he says that he believes in them, though most of the family o'er at the Farm doubt them. But he says they hae na' been to see them,
