J. J. Bell

“ Shark and Miss Tinto, but I wasna despairin', for at their time o' life folk dinna usually jump at marriage like a hungry cat at a finnan haddie. They keep gaun back and forward and round aboot, sniffin'-like, and whiles naething comes o' it at a'. Ye really canna dae onything to help them, and they're that easy scared.
"We must jist ha'e patience," I remarks to Mrs. Parkins, one morning at the end of the week. ”

“ The boarders had to get what Mrs. Parkins called Emergency Soup—it was maistly seasonin'—and cook was highly depressed that night, and dreamed she was torpedoed along wi' Colonel Beetle, which saved hissel' by pinchin' the kitchen table and leavin' her to droon, after hittin' her ower the nut wi' a spurtle that was his oar. But I couldna believe the Colonel would really dae sich a thing, even to his wife. As ma fayther says, aye think the best o' folk in this world, and maybe ye'll be saved a heap o' apologisin' in the next. ”

“ I gaed up the Sunnyburn Road, but I didna meet the porter, and I heard afterwards that there had been a special train that day. Of course, it was right that the traffic o' the railway should be carried on. ”