breakfast, then, you mind, unless you'll be getting it yourself,
for the porridge is not cooked and the kettle's nearly boiled
away. I've the water-pail with me, and there's not a drop else in
the house."

She left him to consider this and resumed her song. For several
minutes she and True Tammas sat there gazing westward across the
valley with the little river flowing through it, to the hills
swimming in the blue distance beyond.

At last she called over her shoulder, "Jock, Father's coming,"
and Jock, seeing that his cause was hopelessly lost, unfastened
the door. Jean, her father, and True Tammas all came into the
kitchen together, and the moment she was in the room again you
should have seen how she ordered things about!

"Set the milk right down here, Father," she said, tapping the
table with her finger as she flew past to get the strainer and a
pan, "and you, Jock, fill the kettle. It's almost dry this
minute. And stir up the fire under it. Tam,"--that was what they
called the dog for short,--"go under the table or you'll get
stepped on!"

You should have seen how they all minded!--even the father, who
was six feet tall, with a jaw like a nut-cracker and a face that
would have looked very stern indeed if it hadn't been for his
twinkling blue eyes. When the milk was strained and put away in
the little shed room back of the kitchen chimney, Jean got out
the oatmeal-kettle and hung the porridge over the fire, and while
that was cooking she set three places at the tiny table and