rested on the partition between it and the dairy; so that, from a
shelf level with the hole, he could easily enough get on the top of
the ceiling. This, urged by the instinct of the homeless to
understand their surroundings, he presently effected, by creeping
like a cat along the top shelf.

The ceiling was that of the kitchen, and was merely of boards,
which, being old and shrunken, had here and there a considerable
crack between two, and Gibbie, peeping through one after another of
these cracks, soon saw several things he did not understand. Of
such was a barrel-churn, which he took for a barrel-organ, and
welcomed as a sign of civilization. The woman was sweeping the room
towards the hearth, where the peat fire was already burning, with a
great pot hanging over it, covered with a wooden lid. When the
water in it was hot, she poured it into a large wooden dish, in
which she began to wash other dishes, thus giving the observant
Gibbie his first notion of housekeeping. Then she scoured the deal
table, dusted the bench and the chairs, arranged the dishes on
shelves and rack, except a few which she placed on the table, put
more water on the fire, and disappeared in the dairy. Thence
presently she returned, carrying a great jar, which, to Gibbie's
astonishment, having lifted a lid in the top of the churn, she
emptied into it; he was not, therefore, any farther astonished, when
she began to turn the handle vigorously, that no music issued. As
to what else might be expected, Gibbie had not even a mistaken idea.
But the butter came quickly that morning, and then he did have
another astonishment, for he saw a great mass of something
half-solid tumbled out where he had seen a liquid poured in--nor
that alone, for the liquid came out again too! But when at length
he saw the mass, after being well washed, moulded into certain
shapes, he recognized it as butter, such as he had seen in the
shops, and had now and then tasted on the piece given him by some
more than usually generous housekeeper. Surely he had wandered into
a region of plenty! Only now, when he saw the woman busy and
careful, the idea of things in the country being a sort of common
property began to fade from his mind, and the perception to wake
that they were as the things in the shops, which must not be touched
without first paying money for them over a counter.

The butter-making, brought to a successful close, the woman
proceeded to make porridge for