Kate being then with Lady Skimmilk, at the Breadland, sewing. It
was between the day and dark, when the shuttle stands still till the
lamp is lighted. But such a shout of joy and thankfulness as rose
from that hearth, when Charlie went in! The very parrot, ye would
have thought, was a participator, for the beast gied a skraik that
made my whole head dirl; and the neighbours came flying and flocking
to see what was the matter, for it was the first parrot ever seen
within the bounds of the parish, and some thought it was but a
foreign hawk, with a yellow head and green feathers.

In the midst of all this, Effie Malcolm had run off to the Breadland
for her sister Kate, and the two lassies came flying breathless,
with Miss Girzie Gilchrist, the Lady Skimmilk, pursuing them like
desperation, or a griffin, down the avenue; for Kate, in her hurry,
had flung down her seam, a new printed gown, that she was helping to
make, and it had fallen into a boyne of milk that was ready for the
creaming, by which issued a double misfortune to Miss Girzie, the
gown being not only ruined, but licking up the cream. For this,
poor Kate was not allowed ever to set her face in the Breadland
again.

When Charlie Malcolm had stayed about a week with his mother, he
returned to his berth in the Tobacco trader, and shortly after his
brother Robert was likewise sent to serve his time to the sea, with
an owner that was master of his own bark, in the coal trade at
Irville. Kate, who was really a surprising lassie for her years,
was taken off her mother's hands by the old Lady Macadam, that lived
in her jointure house, which is now the Cross Keys Inn. Her
ladyship was a woman of high breeding, her husband having been a
great general, and knighted by the king for his exploits; but she