Then with regard to manners, I think bush people, who have not seen much of the world, ought decidedly to go through a severe course of novels to learn how people speak and act in different spheres of society. You know we are buried out here."
"You may think you are buried at Richlands: but we dinna consider we are buried at Branxholm," said Mrs. Lindsay, drily. " What with having our bairns about us, and our hands aye full of work, we are baith living and life-like. No that I say anything against an entertaining book at an odd time, but I wou'd na like to put my dependence a'thegither on romancing novels".
"Oh! but we are not all of such a solid character as you are, Mrs. Lindsay; you do not expect old heads upon comparatively young shoulders. I know the young people will enjoy the novels," said Mrs. Troubridge.
And the young people did. Gerald Staunton's library had been very deficient in novels, though rich in poetry, and it was the first introduction of the family at Branxholm to novels on a large scale. No sooner was the first packet read than it was exchanged by Mrs. Troubridge for another, and their ideas were enlarged and their minds opened by the perusal of one work of fiction after another of all colours—green, blue, red, and
