154 The Little Minister

tive dower so close to Nanny’s eyes that it hid
the poorhouse.

“I suppose she'll gie you the money,” she
said, “and syne you'll gie me the seven shillings
a week?”

“That seems the best plan,” Gavin answered.

“And what will you gie it me in?” Nanny
asked, with something on her mind. “I would
be terrible obliged if you gae it to me in sax-
pences.”’

“Do the smaller coins go further?” Gavin
asked, curiously.

“Na, it’s no that. But Uve heard tell o’ folk
giving away half-crowns by mistake for twa shil-
ling bits; ay, and there’s something dizzying in
ha’en fower and twenty pennies in one piece; it
has sic terrible little bulk. Sanders had aince a
gold sovereign, and he looked at it so often that
it seemed to grow smaller and smaller in his hand
till he was feared it micht just be a half after all.”

Her mind relieved on this matter, the old
woman set off for the well. A minute afterwards
Gavin went to the door to look for the gypsy,
and, behold, Nanny was no farther than the gate.
Have you who read ever been sick near to death,
and then so far recovered that you could once
again stand at your window? If so, you have
not forgotten how the beauty of the world struck
you afresh, so that you looked long and said
many times, “ How fair a world it is!” like one
who had made a discovery. It was such a look
that Nanny gave to the hill and Caddam while
she stood at her garden gate.

Gavin returned to the fire and watched a girl