w. Give the
lads a bagpipe instead of a rattle, and I'll answer for it the corn 'll
be safe."

"Yes, there's folks as find a pleasure in undervallying what they know
but little about," said Mr. Craig.

"Why, the Scotch tunes are just like a scolding, nagging woman," Bartle
went on, without deigning to notice Mr. Craig's remark. "They go on with
the same thing over and over again, and never come to a reasonable end.
Anybody 'ud think the Scotch tunes had always been asking a question of
somebody as deaf as old Taft, and had never got an answer yet."

Adam minded the less about sitting by Mr. Casson, because this position
enabled him to see Hetty, who was not far off him at the next table.
Hetty, however, had not even noticed his presence yet, for she was
giving angry attention to Totty, who insisted on drawing up her feet on
to the bench in antique fashion, and thereby threatened to make dusty
marks on Hetty's pink-and-white frock. No sooner were the little fat
legs pushed down than up they came again, for Totty's eyes were too busy
in staring at the large dishes to see where the plum pudding was for
her to retain any consciousness of her legs. Hetty got quite out of
patience, and at last, with a frown and pout, and gathering tears, she
said, "Oh dear, Aunt, I wish you'd speak to Totty; she keeps putting her
legs up so, and messing my frock."

"What's the matter wi' the child? She can niver please you," said the
mother. "Let her come by the side o' me, then. I can put up wi' her."

Adam was looking at Hetty, and saw the frown, and pout, and the dark
eyes seeming to grow larger with pettish half-gathered tears. Quiet Mary
Burge, who sat near enough to see that Hetty was cross and that Adam's
eyes were fixed on her, thought that so sensible a man as Adam must be
reflecting on the small value of beauty in a woman whose temper was bad.
Mary was a good girl, not given to indulge in evil feelings, but she
said to herself, that, since Hetty had a bad temper, it was better Adam
should know it. And it was quite true that if Hetty had been plain, she
would have looked very ugly and unamiable at that moment, and no one's
moral judgment upon her would have been in the least beguiled. But
really there was something quite charming in her pettishness: it looked
so much more like innocent distress than ill humour; and the severe Adam
felt no movement of disapprobation; he only felt a sort of amused pity,
as if he had seen a kitten