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CHAPTER XVI. 



ON THE MOUNTAIN. 



We were up and ready long before dawn, and Nanny 

 with her accustomed kindness had prepared my break- 

 fast, and stood by and chatted with me while I drank 

 the excellent coffee which was her making, well pleased 

 that I found all so good. It always caused me pleasure 

 to see her bright intelligent face, and the patois in which 

 she spoke gave, to me at least, an additional charm to 

 her lively, sensible talk.* 



" Joseph is going with you today," she said, " he will 

 like to accompany you if you have no objection." 



" Of course not ; I shall be very glad to have him. 

 Who would not like to have a Solacher with him on the 

 mountain V And so she thought too in her heart, I 

 know j for though the last part of her sentence was added 

 for politeness, she no doubt deemed — and was quite right 

 in doing so — that the gain and the honour were entirely 

 on my side. It always pleased me to see the love and 

 pride with which these girls invariably spoke of their 

 brothers. There was all the sister's affection, all the 

 genuine woman's pride, in being able to talk of them 

 as their brothers. It was a theme they never tired of 



* "A sort of Doric dialect,'' as Humphrey Clinker says of the Scotch, 

 " which gives an idea of amiable simplicity." 



