said Mr. Lindsay. "I would be better for you, that's a lady and a scholar, to write to them than for the like of us."
"As I have not taken the girl, or any responsibility with regard to her," said Mrs. Hammond, "the communication certainly ought not to come from me. Your son or daughter could surely write a simple statement of facts. And your son having been present at, or near, the time of the accident, is the most fit person to give information as to this very sad affair."
Allan's face had changed colour many times during the conversation which he had listened to. It had glowed at his mother's warmth but very lately, but another tinge passed over it at the proposal that he should write to the friends of a scholar and an author.
"Indeed Allan's no very clever with the pen, though there's nothing on the farm or the station that he's backward with; and as for contriving, there never was his match seen, but his hands have been aye so full of work that there's been no time for learning. I'm sure Isabel and Phemie will never be the lassies that Jessie has been to me, nor will Jamie or Hughie ever fill Allan's shoes, but the younger ones are getting the lair. But surely the lassie is old enough to write to her friends herself, and nae doot has the
