This was Mrs.Crabb, of the Tappit Hen, the Esther Auld whom Jean Myles's letters had so frequently sent to bed.

Her Francie was still a pupil of Miss Ailie, and still he wore the golden hair, which, despite all advice, she would not crop.

It was so beautiful that no common boys could see it without wanting to give it a tug in passing, and partly to prevent this, partly to show how high she had risen in the social scale, Esther usually sent him to school under the charge of her servant lass.

She now proposed to Aaron that this duty should devolve on Tommy, and for the service she would pay his fees at the Hanky School.
"We maun all lend a hand to poor Jean's bairns," she said, with a gleam in her eye.

"It would have been well for her, Aaron, if she had married you." "Is that all you have to say ?" asked the warper, who had let her enter no farther than the hallan.
"I would expect him to lift Francie ower the pools in wet weather; and it might be as well if he called him Master Francie." "Is that all ?" "Ay, I ask no more, for we maun all help Jean's bairns.