``Mair regretted---mair missed?---I liked ane
of the auld family very weel, but I winna say that
for them a'. How should they be mair missed
than the Treddleses? The cotton mill was such
a thing for the country! The mair bairns a cottar
body had the better; they would make their
awn keep frae the time they were five years
auld; and a widow wi' three or four bairns was a
wealthy woman in the time of the Treddleses.''
``But the health of these poor children, my
good friend---their education and religious instruction------''
``For health,'' said Christie, looking gloomily at
me, ``ye maun ken little of the warld, sir, if ye
dinna ken that the health of the poor man's body,
as weel as his youth and his strength, are all at the
command of the rich man's purse. There never
was a trade so unhealthy yet, but men would fight
to get wark at it for twa pennies a day aboon the
common wage. But the bairns were reasonably
weel cared for in the way of air and exercise, and
a very responsible youth heard them their carritch,
and gied them lessons in Reediemadeasy.* Now,
* ``Reading made Easy,'' usually so pronounced in Scotland.
what did they ever get before? Maybe on a winter
day they wad be called out to beat the wood
for cocks or sicklike, and then the starving weans
would maybe get a bite of broken bread, and maybe
no, just as the butler was in humour---that was
a' they got.
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