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Page 42
"I'll show ye hoo a prood goldsmith ance smoked wi' a'."
Then, jauntily: "Sandy, gie a crack to 'Bluidy' McKenzie's door
an' daur the auld hornie to come oot."
The deed was done amid breathless apprehensions, but nothing
disturbed the silence of the May noon except the lark that sprang
at their feet and soared singing into the blue. It was Sandy who
presently whistled like a blackbird to attract the attention of
Bobby.
There were no blackbirds in the kirkyard, and Bobby understood
the signal. He scampered up at once and dashed around the kirk,
all excitement, for he had had many adventures with the Heriot
boys at skating and hockey on Duddingston Lock in the winter, and
tramps over the country and out to Leith harbor in the spring.
The laddies prowled along the upper wall of the kirks, opened and
shut the wicket, to give the caretaker the idea that they had
come in decorously by the gate, and went down to ask him, with
due respect and humility, if they could take Bobby out for the
afternoon. They were going to mark the places where wild flowers
might be had, to decorate "Jinglin' Geordie's" portrait, statue
and tomb at the school on Founder's Day. Mr. Brown considered
them with a glower that made the boys nudge each other knowingly.
"Saturday isna the day for 'im to be gaen aboot. He aye has a
washin' an' a groomin' to mak' 'im fit for the Sabbath. An', by
the leuk o' ye, ye'd be nane the waur for soap an' water yer
ainsel's."
"We'll gie 'im 'is washin' an' combin' the nicht," they
volunteered, eagerly.
"Weel, noo, he wullna hae 'is dinner till the time-gun."
Neither would they. At that, annoyed by their persistence, Mr.
Brown denied authority.
"Ye ken weel he isna ma dog. Ye'll hae to gang up an' spier
Maister Traill. He's fair daft aboot the gude-for-naethin' tyke."
This was understood as permission. As the boys ran up to the
gate, with Bobby at their heels, Mr. Brown called after them: "Ye
fetch 'im hame wi' the sunset bugle, an' gin ye teach 'im ony o'
yer unmannerly ways I'll tak' a stick to yer breeks."
When they returned to Mr. Traill's place at two o'clock the
landlord stood in shirt-sleeves and apron in the open doorway
with Bobby, the little dog gripping a mutton shank in his mouth.
"Bobby must tak' his bone down first and hide it awa'. The
Sabbath in a kirkyard is a dull day for a wee dog, so he aye gets
a catechism of a bone to mumble over."
'The landlord sighed in open envy when the laddies and the little
dog tumbled down the Row to the Grassmarket on their gypsying.
His eyes sought out the glimpse of green country on the dome of
Arthur's Seat, that loomed beyond the University towers to the
east. There are times when the heart of a boy goes ill with the
sordid duties of the man.
Straight down the length of the empty market the laddies ran,
through the crooked, fascinating haunt of horses and jockeys in
the street of King's Stables, then northward along the fronts of
quaint little handicrafts shops that skirted Castle Crag. By
turning westward into Queensferry Street a very few minutes would
have brought them to a bit of buried country. But every
expedition of Edinburgh lads of spirit of that day was properly
begun with challenges to scale Castle Rock from the valley park
of Princes Street Gardens on the north.
"I daur ye to gang up!" was all that was necessary to set any
group of youngsters to scaling the precipice. By every tree and
ledge, by every cranny and point of rock, stoutly rooted hazel
and thorn bush and clump of gorse, they climbed. These laddies
went up a quarter or a third of the way to the grim ramparts and
came cautiously down again. Bobby scrambled higher, tumbled back
more recklessly and fell, head over heels and upside down, on the
daisied turf. He righted himself at once, and yelped in sharp
protest. Then he sniffed and busied himself with pretenses, in
the elaborate unconcern with which a little dog denies anything
discreditable. There were legends of daring youth having climbed
this war-like cliff and laying hands on the fortress wall, but
Geordie expressed a popular feeling in declaring these tales "a'
lees."
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