at once that a
sick nurse was indispensable; and, though she had herself a husband and
two children to attend to, and, consequently, could be but ill spared
from her own house, she readily offered her services, and was accepted.

By her advice, medical assistance was immediately procured; and the
kind-hearted matron continued to attend the sick-bed of her mistress,
night and day, for three weeks, during which period Mr. Black was seldom
at home. Hitherto, the doctor had entertained hopes of his patient's
recovery; but, on the eighteenth day, to Elspeth's anxious inquiries, he
only shook his head, and bade her "not be surprised whatever should
happen." His words were deemed ominous: a messenger was despatched to
bring Mr. Black home; and, on the following day, his wife died. Upon
this sad occasion, Nancy seemed to be the only real mourner; for, though
her father and brother hung their heads, and looked demure for a day or
two, even the semblance of sorrow vanished before the exciting potations
which they swallowed at the _dregy_.[6] Nancy, however, did feel the
loss of her mother, and mourned it as deeply as her young heart could.
And, as she had been oftener than once rebuked with great severity by
her remaining parent, for what he called her _blubbering_, when grief
overcame her she frequently sought a hiding place for her tears in the
house of Elspeth, who, with the heart and the feelings of her sex,
shared the sorrows of the poor girl while she strove to alleviate them.
But she was soon deprived of this refuge; for, in a few days after the
funeral, Elspeth, who had probably caught the infection while attending
the deathbed of her mistress, found herself in the grasp of the same
terrible disease which had carried her mistress off; and Nancy, to avoid
the same fate, was debarred from entering the door of her humble friend
and only comforter.

On such occasions, to have one who will listen patiently to a recital
of our sorrows, and respond to them with a sigh, a look of sympathy, a
tear, or a word, in which the tone of the voice bespeaks a reciprocity
of feeling, is comfort, and almost the only comfort of which the case
admits; for the lengthened speech and the studied harangue, containing,
as they are supposed to do, "the words of consolation," often fall upon
the ear without reaching the heart. Such a comforter Nancy Black found
in George Chrighton, or, as he was universally termed, _the laddie
Geordie_. This boy, w