Languages & literature > A window in Thrums

i42 a window in thrums
the drawer departed it was removed from the frame
to make way for a calendar. The deception was
very innocent, Jess being anxious not to hurt the
donor’s feelings.
To those who have the artist’s eye, the picture,
which hangs in my school-house now, does not
show a handsome lad, Jamie being short and
dapper, with straw-coloured hair, and a chin that
ran away into his neck. That is how I once re¬
garded him, but I have little heart for criticism
of those I like, and, despite his madness for a
season, of which alas, I shall have to tell, I am
always Jamie’s friend. Even to hear any one
disparaging the appearance of Jess’s son is to me
a pain.
All Jess’s acquaintances knew that in the be¬
ginning of every month a registered letter reached
her from London. To her. it was not a matter
to keep secret. She was proud that the help she
and Hendry needed in the gloaming of their lives
should come from her beloved son, and the neigh¬
bours esteemed Jamie because he was good to
his mother. Jess had more humour than any other
woman I have known, while Leeby was but sparingly