lgarnock thread," and was invented by her or by
her mother--for accounts differ as to this. I have beside me an
advertisement clipped from one of the newspapers of twenty years ago,
which says: "The Lady Balgarnock and her eldest daughter having attained
to great perfection in making whitening and twisting of SEWING THREED
which is as cheap and white, and known by experience to be much stronger
than the Dutch, to prevent people's being imposed upon by other Threed
which may be sold under the name of Balgarnock Threed, the Papers in which
the Lady Balgarnock at Balgarnock, or Mrs. Johnstone her eldest daughter,
at Givens, do put up their Threed shall, for direction, have thereupon
their Coat of Arms, '_Azure_, a ram's head caboshed _or_.' Those who want
the said Threed, which is to be sold from fivepence to six shillings per
ounce, may write to the Lady Balgarnock at Balgarnock, or Mrs. Johnstone
at Givens, to the care of the Postmaster at Glasgow; and may call for the
same in Edinburgh at John Seton, Merchant, his shop in the Parliament
Close, where they will be served either in Wholesale or Retail, and will
be served in the same manner at Glasgow, by William Selkirk, Merchant, in
Trongate."

In this art, then, the woman spent most of her days, preparing the thread
with her own hands and bleaching her materials on a large slate raised
upon brackets in the window of her garret. And, if one may confess for
all, glad enough were Mr. Johnstone's guests when this wife of his rose
from the table and departed upstairs. For a colder, more taciturn and
discomfortable hostess could not be conceived. She would scarcely
exchange a word through the meal--no, not with her husband, though he
watched and seemed to forestall her wants with a tender officiousness.
To see her seated there in black (which was her only wear), with her back
to the window, her eyes on the board, and, as it seemed, the shadow of a
long-past guilt brooding about her continually, gave me a feeling as of
cold water dripping down the spine. And even the husband, though he
pretended to observe nothing, must have known my relief when she withdrew
and left us with the decanters.

Now I had tholed this penance, maybe, a dozen times, and could never win a
speech from Mrs. Johnstone, nor a look, to show that she regarded me while
present or remembered me after I had gone. So you may think I was
surprised one day when the minister came riding over with word that h