too. Noo, Sandy is baith a canny and a carefu chield;
and, if they dinna thrive, I'm sure it wouldna be his faut."

"It's a' true ye say," responded Margaret; "and weel it pleases me to
hear your guid opinion o' my son. He has a wark wi' the lassie
already, if I'm no far deceived; for ony time when she comes owre to
our house, I've remarkit that he's aye kinder to her than to ony ither
body. But there's a proverb that says, 'young wives seldom like auld
guidmithers'--and that's what troubles me."

"But that needna trouble ye owre muckle either," was the reply;
"for--what's this I was gaun to say, again?--ou ay--wi' respect to
Jenny, puir thing, if it were her guid fortune to draw his affection,
I'm sure she would strive, as far as lay in her power, to mak ye
comfortable."

"I dinna doubt a single word o' what ye say," rejoined the other.
"Jenny is a dutiful and a kind-hearted lassie; I ken that weel. But,
as the auld sayin is, ilka body kens their ain sair best; and, though
it's nae doubt a weakness, I maun e'en tell ye a'. When I was
married--I mind as weel as yesterday--baith David and me thought we
could live happy wi' his mither; and we did live happy, for aught days
or sae; but, after that, I could do naethin to please her. If I tried
to 'earn the milk, it was either owre het or owre cauld when I put in
the 'earning; if I began to wash the dishes, she aye milkit the kye
first, and then she wondered how some folk had sae little sense. I
could neither mak the parritch, nor wash, nor spin, nor mak up a hasp
o' yarn--no, nor soop in the very house, to please her; and, though I
tried, as far as was in my power, to do a'thing her way, it gae me
mony a sleepless nicht, and cost him that's awa nae little vexation.
And weel do I mind mony a time I wondered what pleasure she could tak
in distressin me; but I think noo it was just a frailty o' our
nature--a something that auld folk canna help. And I think, too, I've
discovered the cause o' her grumlin since I began to see the prospect
o' Sandy takin a wife. Now, ye'll nae doubt think it strange," she
continued, in a hesitating tone--"ye'll nae doubt think it strange,
Nelly; but, dearly as I like my ain son--and weel as I would like to
see him happy wi' a woman wha loved him better than a' the warld
beside--still there's a something in the idea o' anither comin in to
be the mistress o' the hoose whaur I've had the management sae lang,
that aye distresses me when I think on'