about midday
Sitting on the hen-house roof and munching a raw turnip was a figure which she recognised as the smallest of the Die-Hards . Between bites he was singing dolefully to the tune of `` Annie Laurie '' one of the ditties of his quondam Sunday school : `` The Boorjoys ' brays are bonny , Too-roo-ra-roo-raloo , But the Worrkers o ' the Worrld Wull gar them a ' look blue , Wull gar them a ' look blue , And droon them in the sea , And -- for bonnie Annie Laurie I 'll lay me down and dee . '' `` Losh , laddie , '' she cried , `` that 's cauld food for the stamach . Come indoors about midday and I 'll gie ye a plate o ' broth ! '' The Die-Hard saluted and continued on the turnip . She took the Auchenlochan road across the Garple bridge , for that was the best road to the Mains and by it Dickson and the others might be returning . Her equanimity at all seasons was like a Turk 's , and she would not have admitted that anything mortal had power to upset or excite her : nevertheless it was a fast-beating heart that she now bore beneath her Sunday jacket .