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Page 53
"Tut, tut, Mr. Traill, you are making far too much of a small
matter."
"It's no' a sma' matter to be entered in the records of the Burgh
court as a petty law-breaker. And if I continued to feed the dog
I would be in contempt of court."
The magistrate was beginning to feel badgered. "The fine carries
the interdiction with it, Mr. Traill, if you are asking for
information."
"It was no' for information, but just to mak' plain my ain line
of conduct. I'm no' intending to abandon the dog. I am commended
here for my humanity, but the bit dog I must let starve for a
technicality." Instantly, as the magistrate half rose from the
bench, the landlord saw that he had gone too far, and put the
court on the defensive. In an easy, conversational tone, as if
unaware of the point he had scored, he asked if he might address
his accuser on a personal matter. "We knew each other weel as
laddies. Davie, when you're in my neeborhood again on a wet day,
come in and dry yoursel' by my fire and tak' another cup o'
kindness for auld lang syne. You'll be all the better man for a
lesson in morals the bit dog can give you: no' to bite the hand
that feeds you."
The policeman turned purple. A ripple of merriment ran through
the room. The magistrate put his hand up to his mouth, and the
clerk began to drop pens. Before silence was restored a messenger
laddie ran up with a note for the bench. The magistrate read it
with a look of relief, and nodded to the man who had been
listening from the doorway, but who disappeared at once.
"The case is ordered continued. The defendant will be given time
to secure witnesses, and notified when to appear. The next case
is called."
Somewhat dazed by this sudden turn, and annoyed by the delayed
settlement of the affair, Mr. Traill hastened from the
court-room. As he gained the street he was overtaken by the
messenger with a second note. And there was a still more
surprising turn that sent the landlord off up swarming High
Street, across the bridge, and on to his snug little place of
business, with the face and the heart of a school-boy. When
Bobby, draggled by three days of wet weather, came in for his
dinner, Mr. Traill scanned him critically and in some perplexity.
At the end of the day's work, as Ailie was dropping her quaint
curtsy and giving her adored employer a shy "gude nicht," he had
a sudden thought that made him call her back.
"Did you ever give a bit dog a washing, lassie?"
"Ye mean Bobby, Maister Traill? Nae, I didna." Her eyes sparkled.
"But Tammy's hauded 'im for Maister Brown, an' he says it's
sonsie to gie the bonny wee a washin'."
"Weel, Mr. Brown is fair ill, and there has been foul weather.
Bobby's getting to look like a poor 'gaen aboot' dog. Have him at
the kirkyard gate at a quarter to eight o'clock the morn looking
like a leddy's pet and I'll dance a Highland fling at your
wedding."
"Are ye gangin' to tak' Bobby on a picnic, Maister Traill?"
He answered with a mock solemnity and a twinkle in his eyes that
mystified the little maid. "Nae, lassie; I'm going to tak' him
to a meeting in a braw kirk."
IX
When Ailie wanted to get up unusually early in the morning she
made use of Tammy for an alarm-clock. A crippled laddie who must
"mak' 'is leevin' wi' 'is heid" can waste no moment of daylight,
and in the ancient buildings around Greyfriars the maximum of
daylight was to be had only by those able and willing to climb to
the gables. Tammy, having to live on the lowest, darkest floor of
all, used the kirkyard for a study, by special indulgence of the
caretaker, whenever the weather permitted.
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