338 THE GARDEN OF A 



I've asked the cause, ' Maister Evan, I'm done on 

 weemin. They're a' that feekle and flutterin' that a 

 mon can neersomever ken where they'll licht next. 

 I'm weel cleart o' them.' " 



" Good as gold is a true sayin', Mr. Evan, and that 

 without references to the eight hundred pounds he's 

 got in bank from twenty years' service. His rheu- 

 matics is much improved since I made up those 

 proper flannels ; 'tis the hawful shrinkin' of the others 

 (no one to wash them thinkin' like) that's had much 

 to do with crumplin' his figger ; not that I hold it bad, 

 legs and arms all bein' there, but a mite disarranged, 

 as it were. As for women bein' changeful, they 

 generally his so, and worse ; and how could he halter 

 his mind until he'd seen different? Has you can 

 certify, Mr. Evan, and Mrs., too, I never flutters, and 

 where I puts down my foot, there I stands." 



" Does Tim know that you are going to marry 

 him ? " asked Evan, to my horror, for I expected that 

 Martha would retire in high dudgeon, and we should 

 altogether miss the dramatic particulars. But she 

 was too desperately in earnest to heed his meaning. 



" Yes, Mr. Evan, I told him this day come twelve 

 of the clock when, lackin' 'ome-brewed, I give him a 

 cup o' broth to hearten him for goin' across country 

 with the doctor to a conversation or a crowner's quest 



