J. J. Bell

“ I wonder he doesna think shame o' hissel'."
"I hardly think it is any business of yours, Jemima," says Mrs. Parkins, but no' angrily.
"Maybe no', mem," I says; "but I canna help takin' an interest in the folk stoppin' in your hoose."
"That is well enough," she says. "Still, you are not expected to express opinions of them. I may tell you, however, that Colonel Beadle's manner used to worry me a good deal, but after a while I came to the conclusion that he could not help it—it is only his way. You know, we all have our little peculiarities." ”

“ It was then that I minded the words o' Frederick aboot better natures. "What," says I to masel', "if Colonel Beetle has a bit left, after a'!" It's queer hoo one notion leads to another. As I pulled the beauteous roses keepin' a sharp lookout for bumbees, etc., ma head got full o' them—notions, I mean—and when I gaed back to the hoose, I felt like cryin' "Eureka," that bein' the name o' the party which invented hot baths by accident in the days o' Julius Ceasar, or thereaboots, and got a stove polish called ever after him. Sich is fame! ”

“ But at the end o' three weeks I must say what I think o' Col. Beetle, or burst. Oh, yon's no' a nice man! The other mornin', when me and Mrs. Parkins was makin' the beds, I says to her:—
"It's a pity the Colonel doesna treat his lady kinder. ”