rry
waistcoat I aince had. Weel, when it was fell dune, do you think she
gae it awa to some gaen aboot body (vagrant)? Na, she made it into a
richt neat coat to Jamie, wha was a bit laddie at the time. When he
grew out o' it, she made a slipbody o't for hersel. Ay, I dinna ken a'
the different things it became, but the last time I saw it was ben in
the room, whaur she'd covered a footstool wi' 't. Yes, Jess is the
cleverest crittur I ever saw. Leeby's handy, but she's no a patch on
her mother."

I sometimes repeated these panegyrics to Jess. She merely smiled, and
said that the men haver most terrible when they are not at their work.

Hendry tried Jess sorely over the cloaks, and a time came when, only by
exasperating her, could he get her to reply to his sallies.

"Wha wants an eleven an' a bit?" she retorted now and again.

"It's you 'at wants it," said Hendry, promptly.

"Did I ever say I wanted ane? What use could I hae for't?"

"That's the queistion," said Hendry. "Ye canna gang the length o' the
door, so ye would never be able to wear't."

"Ay, weel," replied Jess, "I'll never hae the chance o' no bein' able
to wear't, for, hooever muckle I wanted it, I couldna get it."

Jess's infatuation had in time the effect of making Hendry
uncomfortable. In the attic he delivered himself of such sentiments as
these:

"There's nae understandin' a woman. There's Jess 'at hasna her equal
for cleverness in Thrums, man or woman, an' yet she's fair skeered
about thae cloaks. Aince a woman sets her mind on something to wear,
she's mair onreasonable than the stupidest man. Ay, it micht mak them
humble to see hoo foolish they are syne. No, but it doesna do't.

"If it was a thing to be useful noo, I wouldna think the same o't, but
she could never wear't. She kens she could never wear't, an' yet she's
juist as keen to hae't.

"I dinna like to see her so wantin' a thing, an' no able to get it.
But it's an awfu' sum, eleven an' a bit."

He tried to argue with her further.

"If ye had eleven an' a bit to fling awa," he said, "ye dinna mean to
tell me 'at ye would buy a cloak instead o' cloth for a gown, or
flannel for petticoats, or some useful thing?"

"As sure as death," said Jess, with unwonted vehemence, "if a cloak I
could get, a cloak I would buy."

Hendry came up to tell me what Jess had said.

"It's a michty infatooation," he said, "but it shows hoo her heart's
set on thae cloaks."

"Aince ye h