"She said such a lot," he had to confess, "that I dinna mind none on it.
But I mind what her father in Thrums wrote to her; he wrote to her that
if she saw a carriage go by, she was to keep her eyes on the ground, for
likely as not Jean Myles would be in it, and she thought as they was all
dirt beneath her feet. But Kirsty Ross--who is she?"

"She's Martha's mother. What about her?"

"She wrote at the end of the letter that Martha was to hang on ahint the
carriage and find out where Jean Myles bides."

"Laddie, that was like Kirsty! Heard you what the roaring farmer o'
Double Dykes said?"

No, Tommy had not heard him mentioned. And indeed the roaring farmer of
Double Dykes had said nothing. He was already lying very quiet on the
south side of the cemetery.

Tommy's mother's next question cost her a painful effort. "Did you
hear," she asked, "whether they telled Aaron Latta about the letter?"

"Yes, they telled him," Tommy replied, "and he said a queer thing; he
said, 'Jean Myles is dead, I was at her coffining.' That's what he aye
says when they tell him there's another letter. I wonder what he means,
mother?"

"I wonder!" she echoed, faintly. The only pleasure left her was to raise
the envy of those who had hooted her from Thrums, but she paid a price
for it. Many a stab she had got from the unwitting Tommy as he repeated