FRIENDSHIP AND COURTSHIP. 2?$ 



would tell her that he was "coming up the close." " Oh, the 

 muckle sorra set him ! He's naething but a hinder to ane's 

 wark ! " exclaimed the practical housewife ; for love-making 

 and kitchen cares did not in her eyes go well together. 

 John was not easily repelled however, and would talk to 

 her by the hour, in spite of the attractions of nature around, 

 while she impatiently bustled about her duties. His 

 friends would often tease him, in feigned surprise, " Ow, 

 John, are ye aye here yet ? " " Ay, but I'm just gain' awa." 

 After he had left, they would inquire in confidential tones, 

 " Hae ye made onything o' 'er the day ? " " The feint a 

 flee," returned he, in natural indignation at continued non- 

 success ; " she's an obstinate limmer, that's a'." And there 

 the affair ended. After years of tenderest attentions, 

 nothing came of it, and Jean remained an old maid, and 

 John a widower. 



One day he was found, by the daughter of the house, 

 seated on a stone at the end of a cottage, u where the Gadie 

 rins." She asked him to come in and get a cup of tea, as 

 he had often done before. " Na," says John, in unusually 

 earnest tones, " it's nae for that I cam', but to ask ye, gin 

 ye'll be willin' to marry me !" looking up into her face with 

 a curious bashful eagerness. That was plain and to the 

 point, though scarcely approached with the delicate strategy 

 dear to the sex in such affairs ; but there was no mistaking 

 his meaning. " Eh, Johnnie man," said she, with equal plain 

 and practical directness, " I cu'dna mak' a man's sark for 

 my life ! " she was so weak in the eyes and short-sighted 

 that she never could use a needle, and afterwards became 

 quite blind " I cu'd be nae man's wife." And she told 

 him to " Gang hame and think no mair o' her i' that gait." 



