too, of which she herself had
not taken account, although it was present and made itself felt keenly
enough. It was her strange sense of desolation and grief at the parting
from her father. Baubie herself would have been greatly puzzled had any
person designated her feelings by these names. There were many things in
that philosophy of the gutter in which Baubie Wishart was steeped to the
lips undreamt of by her. What she knew she knew thoroughly, but there
was much with which most children, even of her age and class in life,
are, it is to be hoped, familiar, of which Baubie Wishart was utterly
ignorant. Her circumstances were different from theirs--fortunately for
them; and amongst the poor, as with their betters, various conditions
breed various dispositions. Baubie was an outer barbarian and savage in
comparison with some children, although they perhaps went barefooted
also; but, like a savage too, she would have grown fat where they would
have starved. And this she knew well.

Kate's yellow head, appearing at the door to summon her to dinner, put
an end to her gloomy reverie. And with this, her first meal, began
Baubie's acquaintance with the household of which she was to form an
integral portion from that hour.

They gave her no housework to do. Mrs. Duncan, whom a very cursory
examination satisfied as to the benighted ignorance of this latest
addition to her flock, determined that Baubie should learn to read,
write and sew as expeditiously as might be. In order that she might
benefit by example, she was made to sit by the lassie Grant, the child
whose clothes had been lent to her, and her education began forthwith.

It was tame work to Baubie, who did not love sitting still: "white seam"
was a vexation of spirit, and her knitting, in which she had beforehand
believed herself an adept, was found fault with. The lassie Grant, as
was pointed out to her, could knit more evenly and possessed a superior
method of "turning the heel."

Baubie Wishart listened with outward calmness and seeming acquiescence
to the comparison instituted between herself and her neighbor. Inwardly,
however, she raged. What about knitting? Anybody could knit. She would
like to see the lassie Grant earn two shillings of a Saturday night
singing in the High street or the Lawnmarket. Baubie forgot in her flush
of triumphant recollection that there had always been somebody to take
the two shillings from her, and beat her and accuse her of malvers