"And how could that be? Love is not a cheat; and did ever bairn love a
mither as he loved me? or did ever mither love her bairn as I hae loved
him? Lord, deliver him frae his enemies, and mak him what he was in thae
bygone days--sae innocent, sae cheerful, sae obedient; and I will meekly
suffer a' Thou canst lay upon me."
The words reached the ears of the son, and the audible sobs seemed to
startle the solemn spirit of the hour and the place. "What would she
say," he thought, "if she heard me declare I had robbed my uncle?"
At that moment the door opened, and in rushed little Jeanie
S----th,--her face pale, and her blue eyes lighted with fear, and the
thin delicate nostril distended, and hissing with her quick
breathings,--
"Oh mither, there's twa officers on the stair seeking Charlie!"
And the quick creature, darting her eye on the table where the notes
lay, snatched them up, and secreted them in her bosom; and, what was
more extraordinary, just as if she had divined something more from her
brother's looks, which told her that that money would be sought for by
these officers, she darted off like a bird with a crumb in its bill,
which it has picked up from beneath your eyes; but not before
depositing, as she passed, a paper on a chair near the door.
"That creature is a spirit," said the mother.
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