et against the match,
and noo there's naebody's consent awantin but your ain."

"Ay," said Sandy, "there's anither yet, though you've forgotten about
it; ye maun get her consent too afore it can be a bargain. Jenny has a
heart as weel as her neebors, I'll warrant her," he continued,
stealing a look at the object of whom he spoke, "and I'm maybe no
amang the folk she likes best."

"Weel, Jenny, it's a' at your door noo, I declare," said her mother,
laughing outright. "What say ye to this affair?"

"Oh, if ye would only haud your tongue!" said Jenny, blushing, and
still keeping her eyes fixed upon a rather profitless occupation in
which she had been engaged for some time past--namely, that of folding
and unfolding the corners of her apron with great assiduity; but the
rest of the company, if we except Sandy, perhaps, were so deeply
engaged in their own nonsensical conversation, that they took no
notice of this circumstance.

"That's just the way wi' a' young folk," said Nelly, still laughing;
"the lad thinks the lass has some ither body that she likes better
than him, and the lass thinks the lad pays mair attention to anither
than he does to her; she daurna say a word unless she maybe tak the
dorts and misca him; he hesitates to speak for fear he should be
refused; and between them they aften contrive to torment ane anither
for years, when twa words micht settle the matter, and mak them baith
happy. But I'm sure, Margaret, if they would only leave the thing to
you and me, we could mak a bargain for them the nicht yet."

"It's likely, at least, that we would mak a bargain sooner than they
would do," said the other. But the sigh with which she concluded
bespoke some emotion which accorded ill with the lightness of the
previous conversation. There was a something, too, in her manner,
which seemed to say that, while she was not averse to the proposed
match, she did not altogether relish the jest in which its immediate
consummation had been spoken of.

Mothers have frequently thrown serious obstacles in the path of young
people when they supposed themselves travelling on the highway to
happiness; but sometimes, too, they seem inclined to give them an
opportunity of forming that liking for each other, without which,
according to the popular creed, no happiness can exist. Nelly now
proposed that, while the guidman was suppering the horse, Margaret
should go with her to the byre and see the cow, the yearling, and the
calf