He was a poor man, but she was to be brought by him into Thrums to a little cottage overgrown with roses.
No more hard work for these dear old hands.

She could sell scones, perhaps.

She should have a cow.

He would send the boy to college and make a minister of him; she should yet hear her grandson preach in the church to which as a boy-- But here the old lady somewhat imperilled the picture by rising actively and dumping upon the table the contents of the bag--a fowl for Tommy.
She was as poor an old lady as ever put a halfpenny into the church plate on Sundays; but that she should present a hen to the preserver of her grandson, her mind had been made up from the moment she had reason to think she could find him, and it was to be the finest hen in all the country round.

She was an old lady of infinite spirit, and daily, dragging the boy with her lest he again went a-fishing, she trudged to farms near and far to examine and feel their hens.