The Heart of Mid-Lothian - Penn State University

always clean, and nobody ever saw anybody sweeping
it,” she modestly replied, “That much might be dune
by timing ane’s turns.”
Duncan replied, “He heartily wished she could teach
that art to the huzzies at the Lodge, for he could never
discover that the house was washed at a’, except now
and then by breaking his shins over the pail—Cot tamn
the jauds!”
Of lesser matters there is not occasion to speak much.
It may easily be believed that the Duke’s cheese was
carefully made, and so graciously accepted, that the
offering became annual. Remembrances and acknowledgments
of past favours were sent to Mrs. Bickerton
and Mrs. Glass, and an amicable intercourse maintained
from time to time with these two respectable and benevolent
persons.
It is especially necessary to mention that, in the course
of five years, Mrs. Butler had three children, two boys
and a girl, all stout healthy babes of grace, fair-haired,
blue-eyed, and strong-limbed. The boys were named
David and Reuben, an order of nomenclature which was
Sir Walter Scott
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much to the satisfaction of the old hero of the Covenant,
and the girl, by her mother’s special desire, was christened
Euphemia, rather contrary to the wish both of
her father and husband, who nevertheless loved Mrs.
Butler too well, and were too much indebted to her for
their hours of happiness, to withstand any request which
she made with earnestness, and as a gratification to herself.
But from some feeling, I know not of what kind,
the child was never distinguished by the name of Effie,
but by the abbreviation of Femie, which in Scotland is
equally commonly applied to persons called Euphemia.
In this state of quiet and unostentatious enjoyment,
there were, besides the ordinary rubs and ruffles which
disturb even the most uniform life, two things which
particularly chequered Mrs. Butler’s happiness. “Without
these,” she said to our informer, “her life would have
been but too happy; and perhaps,” she added, “she had
need of some crosses in this world to remind her that
there was a better to come behind it.”
The first of these related to certain polemical skirmishes
betwixt her father and her husband, which, not-