"
"Indeed?" replied the lady; "let me hear some of them, I pray you."
"It would be, for example, very bold in me," said Margaret, "to say to
your ladyship, that, rather than live a quiet life, I would like a
little variety of hope and fear, and liking and disliking--and--and--
and the other sort of feelings which your ladyship is pleased to speak
of; but I may say freely, and without blame, that I like a butterfly
better than a bettle, or a trembling aspen better than a grim Scots
fir, that never wags a leaf--or that of all the wood, brass, and wire
that ever my father's fingers put together, I do hate and detest a
certain huge old clock of the German fashion, that rings hours and
half hours, and quarters and half quarters, as if it were of such
consequence that the world should know it was wound up and going. Now,
dearest lady, I wish you would only compare that clumsy, clanging,
Dutch-looking piece of lumber, with the beautiful timepiece that
Master Heriot caused my father to make for your ladyship, which uses
to play a hundred merry tunes, and turns out, when it strikes the
hour, a whole band of morrice dancers, to trip the hays to the
measure."
"And which of these timepieces goes the truest, Margaret?" said the
lady.
"I must confess the old Dutchman has the advantage in that"--said
Margaret. "I fancy you are right, madam, and that comparisons are no
arguments; at least mine has not brought me through.
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