Part 26 (1/2)

Hoo oor Baby was _burrrned_.

(How our Baby was burnt.)

(You must realize a kind of amiable bland _whine_ in the way of telling this. A caressing tone in the Scotch drawl, as the good lady speaks of _oor wee Wullie_, etc. Also a roll of the r's on the word burned.)

”Did ye never hear hoo oor wee Baby was burrrned? Well ye see--it was _this_ way. The Minister and me had been to _Peebles_--and we were awfu' tired, and we were just haeing oor bit suppers--when oor wee Wullie cam doon-stairs and he says--'Mither, Baby's _burrrning_.'

”--Y'unerstan it was the day that the Minister and me were at Peebles.

We were _awful_ tired, and we were just at oor suppers, and the Minister says (very loud and nasal), '_Ca'll Nurrse_!'--but as it rarely and unfortunitly happened--Nurrse was was.h.i.+ng and she couldna be fashed.

”And in a while our WEE Wullie cam down the stairs again, and he says--'Mither! Baby's burning.'

”--as I was saying the Minister and me had been away over at Peebles, and we were in the verra midst of oor suppers, and I said to him--'Why didna ye call Nurse?'--and off he ran.

”--and there was the misfirtune of it--Nurrse was was.h.i.+ng, and she wouldn't be fashed.

”And--in--a while--oor weee Wullie--came doon the stairs again--and he says 'Mither! Baby's burrrned.' And that was the way oor poor woe baby was burnt!”

Now for one English one and then I must stop to-day. I flatter myself I can tell this with a nice mincing and yet vinegar-ish voice.

”When I married my 'Usbin I had no expectation that he would live three week.

”But Providence--for wise purposes no doubt!--has seen fit to spare him three years.

”And there he sits, all day long, a-reading the _Ill.u.s.trious News_.”

Now I must stop....

Your loving niece, JULIANA HORATIA EWING.

TO A.E.

_Grenoside._ Advent Sunday, 1881.

On one point I think I have improved in my sketching. I have been long wanting to get a _quick style_ sketching not painting. Because I shall never have the time, or the time and strength to pursue a more finished style with success. Now I have got paper on which I can make no corrections (so it forces me to be ”to the point”), and which takes colour softly and nicely. I have to aim at very correct drawing _at once_, and I lay in a good deal both of form and shade with a very soft pencil and then wash colour over; and with the colour I aim at blending tints as I go on, putting one into the other whilst it is wet, instead of was.h.i.+ng off, and laying tint over tint, which the paper won't bear. I am doing both figures and landscape, and in the same style. I think the nerve-vigour I get from the fresh air helps me to decision and choice of colours. But I shall bore you with this gallop on my little hobby horse!...

November 30.

... I have sketched up to to-day, but it was cold and sunless, so I did some village visiting. I am known here, by the bye, as ”_Miss Gatty as was_”! I generally go about with a tribe of children after me, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin! They are now fairly trained to keeping behind me, and are curiously civil in taking care of my traps, pouring out water for me, and keeping each other in a kind of rough order by rougher adjurations!

”Keep out o' t' _leet_ can't ye?”