'He said a sup of milk sudna cross his lips till you'd had a cupful the
like of his; so I brought it in to ye. You'd better make haste and take
it up.'

'Did he send ye wi' the cup, Jeanie Trim?'

'Ay, he did that; and not a bit nor sup will he tak till ye've drunk it
all, every drop.'

With evident delight the cup was drained.

'Ye told him I was ailing and couldna see him the day, Jeanie?'

'Maybe ye'll see him to-morrow.' The maid stooped and folded the white
shawl more carefully over the dame's breast, and smiled in protective
kindly fashion. She had a good heart and a womanly, motherly touch,
although many a mistress had called her wilful and pert.

There were times when the minister came and sat himself behind his
aunt's chair to watch and to listen. He was a meditative man, and wrote
many an essay upon modern theology, but here he found food for
meditation of another sort.

There was no being in the world that he reverenced as he had reverenced
this aged lady. In his childhood she had taught him to lisp the measures
of psalm and paraphrase; in his youth she had advised him with shrewdest
wisdom; in his ministerial life she had been to him a friend, always
holding before him a greater spiritual height to be attained, and
now---- He thought upon his uncle as he had known him, a very reverent