The door's lockit, an' Jeames Jaup, they tell me 's tane awa' the key.

I doobt my mither's awa' upo' the tramp again, and what's to come o' me, the Lord kens.' 'What's this o' 't ?' interposed a severe but not unmelodious voice, breaking into the conversation between the two boys; for the parlour door had opened without Robert's hearing it, and Mrs.Falconer, his grandmother, had drawn near to the speakers.
'What's this o' 't ?' she asked again.

'Wha's that ye're conversin' wi' at the door, Robert?
Gin it be ony decent laddie, tell him to come in, and no stan' at the door in sic a day 's this.' As Robert hesitated with his reply, she looked round the open half of the door, but no sooner saw with whom he was talking than her tone changed.

By this time Betty, wiping her hands in her apron, had completed the group by taking her stand in the kitchen door.
'Na, na,' said Mrs.Falconer.

'We want nane sic-like here.