162
unwiped, was too thick to permit the rays of the sun to penetrate.
As the clock struck eight, she hastened out of bed, vexed at having lost so much of the day in sleep; and on perceiving, when about half dressed, that she had in her room neither water nor hand-bason to wash in, she threw on her dimity bed-gown, and went out to the kitchen, to procure a supply of these necessary articles. She there found Meg and Jean; the former standing at the table, from which the porridge-dishes seemed to have been just removed; the latter killing flies at the window. Mrs Mason addressed herself to Meg, and, after a courteous good-morrow, asked her where she should find a hand bason? "I dinna ken," said Meg, drawing her finger through the milk that had been spilled upon the table. "Where is your mother?" asked Mrs Mason. "I dinna ken," returned Meg, continuing to dabble her hands through the remaining fragments of the feast.
