ity of her position, she went to the kitchen door. The door was
opened to her knock before she had recovered breath enough to speak.
The servant, seeing a girl with a shabby dress, and a dirty bonnet,
from underneath which hung disorderly masses of hair--they would have
_glinted_ in the eye of the sun, but in the eye of the maid they looked
only dusky and disreputable--for Annie was not kept so tidy on the
interest of her money as she had been at the farm--the girl, I say,
seeing this, and finding besides, as she thought, that Annie had
nothing to say, took her for a beggar, and returning into the kitchen,
brought her a piece of oat-cake, the common dole to the young
mendicants of the time. Annie's face flushed crimson, but she said
gently, having by this time got her runaway breath a little more under
control,

"No, I thank ye; I'm no a beggar. I only wanted to ken hoo Alec was the
day."

"Come in," said the girl, anxious to make some amends for her blunder,
"and I'll tell the mistress."

Annie would gladly have objected, contenting herself with the maid's
own account; but she felt rather than understood that there would be
something undignified in refusing to face Alec's mother; so she
followed the maid into the kitchen, and sat down on the edge of a
wooden chair, like a perching bird, till she should return.

"Please, mem, here's a lassie wantin' to ken hoo Maister Alec is the
day," said Mary, with the handle of the parlour door in her hand.

"That must be little Annie Anderson, mamma," said Alec, who was lying
on the sofa very comfortable, considering what he had to lie upon.

It may be guessed at once that Scotch was quite discouraged at home.

Alec had told his mother all about the affair; and some of her friends
from Glamerton, who likewise had sons at the school, had called and
given their versions of the story, in which the prowess of Alec made
more of than in his own account. Indeed, all his fellow-scholars except
the young Bruces, sung his praises aloud; for, whatever the degree of
their affection for Alec, every one of them hated the master--a
terrible thought for him, if he had been able to appreciate it; but I
do not believe he had any suspicion of the fact that he was the centre
of converging thoughts of revengeful dislike. So the mother was proud
of her boy--far prouder than she was willing for him to see: indeed,
she put on the guise of the offended proprieties as much as she could
in his presen