Part 21 (1/2)

”Weel, then, bide wi' me, an' ye'll get it ilka hour o' the day, ye sonsie, wee, talon' bit! What are ye hangin' aroond for? Eh--weel--gang awa' wi' ye--laddie!” The landlord sighed and looked down reproachfully.

With a delighted yelp, and a lick of the lingering hand, Bobby was off.

It was after three o'clock on this day when he returned to the kirkyard.

The caretaker was working at the upper end, and the little dog was lonely. But; long enough absent from his master, Bobby lay down on the grave, in the stillness of the mid-afternoon. The robin made a brief call and, as no other birds were about, hopped upon Bobby's back, perched on his head, and warbled a little song. It was then that the gate clicked. Dismissing her carriage and telling the coachman to return at five, Lady Burdett-Coutts entered the kirkyard.

Bobby trotted around the kirk on the chance of meeting a friend. He looked up intently at the strange lady for a moment, and she stood still and looked down at him. She was not a beautiful lady, nor very young.

Indeed, she was a few years older than the Queen, and the Queen was a widowed grandmother. But she had a sweet dignity and warm serenity--an unhurried look, as if she had all the time in the world for a wee dog; and Bobby was an age-whitened m.u.f.f of a plaintive terrier that captured her heart at once. Very certain that this stranger knew and cared about how he felt, Bobby turned and led her down to Auld Jock's grave. And when she was seated on the table-tomb he came up to her and let her look at his collar, and he stood under her caress, although she spoke to him in fey English, calling him a darling little dog. Then, entirely contented with her company, he lay down, his eyes fixed upon her and lolling his tongue.

The sun was on the green and flowery slope of Greyfriars, warming the weathered tombs and the rear windows of the tenements. The Grand Leddy found a great deal there to interest her beside Bobby and the robin that chirped and picked up crumbs between the little dog's paws. Presently the gate was opened again and a housemaid from some mansion in George Square came around the kirk. Trained by Mistress Jeanie, she was a neat and pretty and pleasant-mannered housemaid, in a black gown and white ap.r.o.n, and with a frilled cap on her crinkly, gold-brown hair that had had more than ”a lick or twa the nicht afore.”

”It's juist Ailie,” Bobby seemed to say, as he stood a moment with crested neck and tail. ”Ilka body kens Ailie.”

The servant la.s.sie, with an hour out, had stopped to speak to Bobby. She had not meant to stay long, but the lady, who didn't look in the least grand, began to think friendly things aloud.

”The windows of the tenements are very clean.”

”Ay. The bairnies couldna see Bobby gin the windows warna washed.” The la.s.sie was pulling her adored little pet's ears, and Bobby was nuzzling up to her.

”In many of the windows there is a box of flowers, or of kitchen herbs to make the broth savory.”

”It wasna so i' the auld days. It was aye was.h.i.+n's clappin' aboon the stanes. Noo, mony o' the mithers hang the claes oot at nicht. Ilka thing is changed sin' I was a wean an' leevin' i' the auld Guildhall, the bairnies haen Bobby to lo'e, an' no' to be neglectet.” She continued the conversation to include Tammy as he came around the kirk on his tapping crutches.

”Hoo mony years is it, Tammy, sin' Bobby's been leevin' i' the auld kirkyaird? At Maister Traill's snawy picnic ye war five gangin' on sax.”

They exchanged glances in which lay one of the happy memories of sad childhoods.

”Noo I'm nineteen going on twenty. It's near fourteen years syne, Ailie.” Nearly all the burrs had been pulled from Tammy's tongue, but he used a Scotch word now and then, no' to shame Ailie's less cultivated speech.

”So long?” murmured the Grand Leddy. ”Bobby is getting old, very old for a terrier.”

As if to deny that, Bobby suddenly shot down the slope in answer to a cry of alarm from a song thrush. Still good for a dash, when he came back he dropped panting. The lady put her hand on his rippling coat and felt his heart pounding. Then she looked at his worn down teeth and lifted his veil. Much of the l.u.s.ter was gone from Bobby's brown eyes, but they were still soft and deep and appealing.

From the windows children looked down upon the quiet group and, without in the least knowing why they wanted to be there, too, the tenement bairns began to drop into the kirkyard. Almost at once it rained--a quick, bright, das.h.i.+ng shower that sent them all flying and laughing up to the shelter of the portico to the new kirk. Bobby scampered up, too, and with the bairns in holiday duddies crowding about her, and the wee dog lolling at her feet, the Grand Leddy talked fairy stories.

She told them all about a pretty country place near London. It was called Holly Lodge because its hedges were bright with green leaves and red berries, even in winter. A lady who had no family at all lived there, and to keep her company she had all sorts of pets. Peter and Prince were the dearest dogs, and c.o.c.ky was a parrot that could say the most amusing things. Sir Garnet was the llama goat, or sheep--she didn't know which. There was a fat and lazy old pony that had long been pensioned off on oats and clover, and--oh yes--the white donkey must not be forgotten!

”O-o-o-oh! I didna ken there wad be ony white donkeys!” cried a big-eyed laddie.

”There cannot be many, and there's a story about how the lady came to have this one. One day, driving in a poor street, she saw a coster--that is a London peddler--beating his tired donkey that refused to pull the load. The lady got out of her carriage, fed the animal some carrots from the cart, talked kindly to him right into his big, surprised ear, and stroked his nose. Presently the poor beast felt better and started off cheerfully with the heavy cart. When many costers learned that it was not only wicked but foolish to abuse their patient animals, they hunted for a white donkey to give the lady. They put a collar of flowers about his neck, and brought him up on a platform before a crowd of people.

Everybody laughed, for he was a clumsy and comical beast to be decorated with roses and daisies. But the lady is proud of him, and now that pampered donkey has nothing to do but pull her Bath chair about, when she is at Holly Lodge, and kick up his heels on a clover pasture.”

”Are ye kennin' anither tale, Leddy?”

”Oh, a number of them. Prince, the fox terrier, was ill once, and the doctor who came to see him said his mistress gave him too much to eat.

That was very probable, because that lady likes to see children and animals have too much to eat. There are dozens and dozens of poor children that the lady knows and loves. Once they lived in a very dark and dirty and crowded tenement, quite as bad as some that were torn down in the Cowgate and the Gra.s.smarket.”

”It mak's ye fecht ane anither,” said one laddie, soberly. ”Gin they had a sonsie doggie like Bobby to lo'e, an' an auld kirkyaird wi' posies an'

birdies to leuk into, they wadna fecht sae muckle.”