nemy, who wasna likely to live lang, and who had something
to leave behind him," said Brownrig, with a scowl.

"As you say,--who has something to leave behind him, and who is as
little likely to leave it to her, as she would be likely to accept it,
if he did. But that's neither here nor there to me, nor to you either,
just now. What I have to say is this. Take ye the good of her care and
her company, while ye have them. Take what she is free to give you, and
claim no more. If she seeks my advice, and takes it, she'll go her own
way, as she has done before. In the meantime, while she is here, let
her do what she can to care for you when the auld wives and the bairns
can spare her."

And with that the doctor bade him `good-day,' and took his departure.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

"God liveth ever,
Wherefore, soul, despair thou never."

Brownrig was better in mind and in body than when Allison first came,
but he was far from strong. His mind was not quite clear, and it was
not easy for him "to put this and that together," in a way to satisfy
himself, when the doctor went away. He was already "muddled," as he
called it, and he did the best thing he could have done in the
circumstances, he shut his eyes and fell asleep.

Before he woke Allison came in, and when he looked up, he saw her
sitting with her work on her lap, and yesterday's newspaper in her hand,
reading: and smiling to herself as she read.

"Weel, what's the news the day?" said he.

Allison did not start or show the surprise she fell at being thus
addressed.

"Will I read it to you?" she asked.

She read about the markets and the news of the day; but whether he were
getting the good of it all or not, she could not say. When she thought
she had read enough, she laid down the paper and took up her work as
usual.

That was the beginning. All the days passed like this day for a while,
except that a book took the place of a newspaper sometimes. And by and
by, the best of books had a minute or two given to it--rarely more than
a minute or two. Brownrig listened to that as he listened to the rest,
willingly, and sometimes with interest, when she chanced to light on a
part which had not been quite forgotten in the long careless years which
had passed since the time his dead mother used to read it with him and
his little sisters, when they were children at home. When he looked
interested, or made a remark on any part of what