I took no great stock of girls at that time, for it was hard for me to see what they had been made for.  There were none of us at Birtwhistle’s that thought very much of them; but the smallest laddies seemed to have the most sense, for after they began to grow bigger they were not so sure about it.  We little ones were all of one mind:  that a creature that couldn’t fight and was aye carrying tales, and couldn’t so much as shy a stone without flapping its arm like a rag in the wind, was no use for anything.  And then the airs that they would put on, as if they were mother and father rolled into one; for ever breaking into a game with “Jimmy, your toe’s come through your boot,” or “Go home, you dirty boy, and clean yourself,” until the very sight of them was weariness.

So when this one came to the steading at West Inch I was not best pleased to see her.  I was twelve at the time (it was in the holidays) and she eleven, a thin, tallish girl with black eyes and the queerest ways.  She was for ever staring out in front of her with her lips parted, as if she saw something wonderful; but when I came behind her and looked the same way, I could see nothing but the sheep’s trough or the midden, or father’s breeches hanging on a clothes-line.  And then if she saw a lump of heather or bracken, or any common stuff of that sort, she would mope over it, as if it had struck her sick, and cry, “How sweet! how perfect!” just as though it had been a painted picture.  She didn’t like games, but I used to make her play “tig” and such like; but it was no fun, for I could always catch her in three jumps, and she could never catch me, though she would come with as much rustle and flutter as ten boys would make.  When I used to tell her that she was good for nothing, and that her father was a fool to bring her up like that, she would begin to cry, and say that I was a rude boy, and that she would go home that very night, and never forgive me as long as she lived.  But in five minutes she had forgot all about it.  What was strange was that she liked me a deal better than I did her, and she would never leave me alone; but she was always watching me and running after me, and then saying, “Oh, here you are!” as if it were a surprise.

But soon I found that there was good in her too.  She used sometimes to give me pennies, so that once I had four in my pocket all at the same time; but the best part of her was the stories that she could tell.  She was sore frightened of frogs, so I would bring one to her, and tell her that I would put it down her neck unless she told a story.  That always helped her to begin; but when once she was started it was wonderful how she would carry on.  And the things that had happened to her, they were enough to take your breath away.  There was a Barbary rover that had been at Eyemouth, and he was coming back in five years in a ship full of gold to make her his wife; and then there was a wandering knight who had been there also, and he had given her