And it was seldom that she went without bringing something back for one or other of us.

It was a wooden pipe for my father, or a Shetland plaid for my mother, or a book for me, or a brass collar for Rob the collie.

There was never a woman more free-handed.
But the best thing that she gave us was just her own presence.

To me it changed the whole country-side, and the sun was brighter and the braes greener and the air sweeter from the day she came.

Our lives were common no longer now that we spent them with such a one as she, and the old dull grey house was another place in my eyes since she had set her foot across the door-mat.