pulator.

It was sudden: and Martin old and stiff in more ways than one--

"No, thank you, dame. I have got used to out o' doors. And I love not
changing and changing. I meddle wi' nobody here; and nobody meddles wi'
me."

"Oh, you nasty, cross old wretch!" screamed Catherine, passing in a
moment from treacle to sharpest vinegar. And she flounced back into the
house.

On calm reflection she had a little cry. Then she half reconciled
herself to her conduct by vowing to be so kind, Margaret should never
miss her plagues of soldiers. But feeling still a little uneasy, she
dispersed all regrets by a process at once simple and sovereign.

She took and washed the child.

From head to foot she washed him in tepid water; and heroes, and their
wrongs, became as dust in an ocean--of soap and water.

While this celestial ceremony proceeded, Margaret could not keep quiet.
She hovered round the fortunate performer. She must have an apparent
hand in it, if not a real. She put her finger into the water--to pave
the way for her boy, I suppose; for she could not have deceived herself
so far as to think Catherine would allow her to settle the temperature.
During the ablution she kneeled down opposite the little Gerard, and
prattled to him with amazing fluency; taking care, however, not to
articulate like grown-up people; for, how could a cherub understand
their ridiculous pronunciation?

"I wish you could wash out THAT," said she, fixing her eyes on the
little boy's hand.

"What?"

"What, have you not noticed? on his little finger."

Granny looked, and there was a little brown mole,

"Eh, but this is wonderful!" she cried. "Nature, my lass, y'are strong;
and meddlesome to boot. Hast noticed such a mark on some one else? Tell
the truth, girl!"

"What, on him? Nay, mother, not I."

"Well then he has; and on the very spot. And you never noticed that
much. But, dear heart, I forgot; you han't known him from child to man
as I have, I have had him hundreds o' times on my knees, the same
as this, and washed him from top to toe in luke-warm water." And she
swelled with conscious superiority; and Margaret looked meekly up to her
as a woman beyond competition.

Catherine looked down from her dizzy height and moralized. She differed
from other busy-bodies in this, that she now and then reflected: not
deeply; or of course I should take care not to print it.

"It is strange," said she, "how things come round and about, Life is bu