leaning forward in her
chair, was arranging them in a semicircle round the fire.

"Na," was the first remark of Leeby's that came between me and my book,
"it is no new furniture."

"But there was three cart-loads o't, Leeby, sent on frae Edinbory.
Tibbie Birse helpit to lift it in, and she said the parlour furniture
beat a'."

"Ou, it's substantial, but it is no new. I sepad it had been bocht
cheap second-hand, for the chair I had was terrible scratched like,
an', what's mair, the airm-chair was a heap shinnier than the rest."

"Ay, ay, I wager it had been new stuffed. Tibbie said the carpet cowed
for grandeur?"

"Oh, I dinna deny it's a guid carpet; but if it's been turned once it's
been turned half a dozen times, so it's far frae new. Ay, an' forby,
it was rale threadbare aneath the table, so ye may be sure they've been
cuttin't an' puttin' the worn pairt whaur it would be least seen."

"They say 'at there's twa grand gas brackets i' the parlour, an' a
wonderfu' gasoliery i' the dinin'-room?"

"We wasna i' the dinin'-room, so I ken naething aboot the gasoliery;
but I'll tell ye what the gas brackets is. I recognized them
immeditly. Ye mind the auld gasoliery i' the dinin'-room had twa
lichts? Ay, then, the parlour brackets is made oot o' the auld
gasoliery."

"Weel, Leeby, as sure as ye're standin' there, that passed through my
head as sune as Tibbie mentioned them!"

"There's nae doot about it. Ay, I was in ane o' the bedrooms, too!"

"It would be grand?"

"I wouldna say 'at it was partikler grand, but there was a great mask
(quantity) o' things in't, an' near everything was covered wi'
cretonne. But the chairs dinna match. There was a very bonny-painted
cloth alang the chimley--what they call a mantelpiece border, I
warrant."

"Sal, I've often wondered what they was."

"Well, I assure ye they winna be ill to mak, for the border was juist
nailed upon a board laid on the chimley. There's naething to hender's
makin' ane for the room."

"Ay, we could sew something on the border instead o' paintin't. The
room lookit weel, ye say?"

"Yes, but it was economically furnished. There was nae carpet below
the wax-cloth; na, there was nane below the bed either."

"Was't a grand bed?"

"It had a fell lot o' brass aboot it, but there was juist one pair o'
blankets. I thocht it was gey shabby, hae'n the ewer a different
pattern frae the basin; ay, an' there was juist a poker in the
fireplace, t