Part 5 (1/2)
”Have you seen a bit dog, man?”
There was much cordial interest in his quest, windows opening and faces staring into the dusk; but not until near the top of the Row was a clue gained. Then, at the query, an unkempt, illclad la.s.sie slipped from her stool and leaned out over the pediment of a tomb. She had seen a ”wee, wee doggie jinkin' amang the stanes.” It was on the Sabbath evening, when the well-dressed folk had gone home from the afternoon services.
She was eating her porridge at the window, ”by her lane,” when he ”keeked up at her so knowing, and begged so bonny,” that she balanced her bit bowl on a lath, and pushed it over on the kirkyard wall. As she finished the story the big, blue eyes of the little maid, who doubtless had herself known what it was to be hungry, filled with tears.
”The wee tyke couldna loup up to it, an' a deil o' a p.u.s.s.y got it a'. He was so bonny, like a leddy's pet, an' syne he fell ower on the snaw an'
creepit awa'. He didna cry oot, but he was a' but deid wi' hunger.”
At the memory of it soft-hearted Ailie Lindsey sobbed on her mother's shoulder.
The tale was retold from one excited window to another, all the way around and all the way up to the gables, so quickly could some incident of human interest make a social gathering in the populous tenements.
Most of all, the children seized upon the touching story. Eager and pinched little faces peered wistfully into the melancholy kirkyard.
”Is he yer ain dog?” crippled Tammy Barr piped out, in his thin treble.
”Gin I had a bonny wee dog I'd gie 'im ma ain brose, an' cuddle 'im, an'
he couldna gang awa'.”
”Nae, laddie, he's no' my dog. His master lies buried here, and the leal Highlander mourns for him.” With keener appreciation of its pathos, Mr.
Traill recalled that this was what Auld Jock had said: ”Bobby isna ma ain dog.” And he was conscious of wis.h.i.+ng that Bobby was his own, with his unpurchasable love and a loyalty to face starvation. As he mounted the turfed terraces he thought to call back:
”If you see him again, la.s.sie, call him 'Bobby,' and fetch him up to Greyfriars Dining-Rooms. I have a bright siller shulling, with the Queen's bonny face on it, to give the bairn that finds Bobby.”
There was excited comment on this. He must, indeed, be an attractive dog to be worth a s.h.i.+lling. The children generously shared plans for capturing Bobby. But presently the windows were closed, and supper was resumed. The caretaker was irritable.
”Noo, ye'll hae them a' oot swarmin' ower the kirkyaird. There's nae c.o.o.ntin' the bairns o' the neeborhood, an' nane o' them are so weel broucht up as they micht be.”
Mr. Traill commented upon this philosophically: ”A bairn is like a dog in mony ways. Tak' a stick to one or the other and he'll misbehave. The children here are poor and neglected, but they're no' vicious like the awfu' imps of the Cowgate, wha'd steal from their blind grandmithers.
Get on the gude side of the bairns, man, and you'll live easier and die happier.”
It seemed useless to search the much longer arm of the kirkyard that ran southward behind the shops of Greyfriars Place and Forest Road. If Bobby was in the enclosure at all he would not be far from Auld Jock's grave.
Nearest the new-made mound were two very old and dark table-tombs. The farther one lay horizontally, on its upright ”through stanes,” some distance above the earth. The supports of the other had fallen, and the table lay on their thickness within six inches of the ground. Mr. Traill and the caretaker sat upon this slab, which testified to the piety and worth of one Mistress Jean Grant, who had died ”lang syne.”
Encroached upon, as it was, by unlovely life, Greyfriars kirkyard was yet a place of solitude and peace. The building had the dignity that only old age can give. It had lost its tower by an explosion of gunpowder stored there in war time, and its walls and many of the ancient tombs bore the marks of fire and shot. Within the last decade some of the Gothic openings had been filled with beautiful memorial windows. Despite the horrors and absurdities and mutilation of much of the funeral sculpturing, the kirkyard had a sad distinction, such as became its fame as Scotland's Westminster. And, there was one heavenward outlook and heavenly view. Over the tallest decaying tenement one could look up to the Castle of dreams on the crag, and drop the glance all the way down the pinnacled crest of High Street, to the dark and deserted Palace of Holyrood. After nightfall the turreted heights wore a luminous crown, and the steep ridge up to it twinkled with myriad lights. After a time the caretaker offered a well-considered opinion.
”The dog maun hae left the kirkyaird. Thae terriers are aye barkin'.
It'd be maist michty noo, gin he'd be so lang i' the kirkyaird, an' no'
mak' a blatterin'.”
As a man of superior knowledge Mr. Traill found pleasure in upsetting this theory. ”The Highland breed are no' like ordinar' terriers. Noisy enough to deave one, by nature, give a bit Skye a reason and he'll lie a' the day under a whin bush on the brae, as canny as a fox. You gave Bobby a reason for hiding here by turning him out. And Auld Jock was a vera releegious man. It would no' be surprising if he taught Bobby to hold his tongue in a kirkyard.”
”Man, he did that vera thing.” James Brown brought his fist down on his knee; for suddenly he identified Bobby as the snappy little ruffian that had chased the cat and bitten his s.h.i.+ns, and Auld Jock as the scandalized shepherd who had rebuked the dog so bitterly. He related the incident with gusto.
”The auld man cried oot on the misbehavin' tyke to haud 'is gab. Syne, ye ne'er saw the bit dog's like for a bairn that'd haen a lickin'. He'd 'a' gaen into a pit, gin there'd been ane, an' pu'd it in ahind 'im.
I turned 'em baith oot, an' told 'em no' to come back. Eh, man, it's fearsome hoo ilka body comes to a kirkyaird, toes afore 'im, in a long box.”
Mr. Brown was sobered by this grim thought and then, in his turn, he confessed a slip to this tolerant man of the world. ”The wee deil o' a sperity dog nipped me so I let oot an aith.”