"that the professor would let me sit beside you;
I would just hunker on the floor and hold your foot and no say a word."
Tommy gave Tod's wife an imploring look, and she managed to comfort
Elspeth with predictions of his coming triumph and the reunion to
follow. Grateful Elspeth in return asked Tommy to help Tod when the
professors were not looking, and he promised, after which she had no
more fear for Tod.

And now, ye drums that we all carry in our breasts, beat your best over
the bravest sight ever seen in a small Scotch town of an autumn morning,
the departure of its fighting lads for the lists at Aberdeen. Let the
tune be the sweet familiar one you found somewhere in the Bible long
ago, "The mothers we leave behind us"--leave behind us on their knees.
May it dirl through your bones, brave boys, to the end, as you hope not
to be damned. And now, quick march.

A week has elapsed, and now--there is no call for music now, for these
are but the vanquished crawling back, Joe Meldrum and--and another. No,
it is not Tod, he stays on in Aberdeen, for he is a twelve-pound tenner.
The two were within a mile of Thrums at three o'clock, but after that
they lagged, waiting for the gloaming, when they stole to their homes,
ducking as they passed windows without the blinds down. Elspeth ran to
Tommy when he appeared in the doorway, and then she got quickly between
him and Aaron. The warper was sitting by the fire at his evening meal,
and he gave the wanderer a long steady look, then without a word
returned to his porridge and porter. It was a less hearty welcome home
even than Joe's; his mother was among those who had wept to lose her
son, but when he came back to her she gave him a whack on the head with
the thieval.

Aaron asked not a question about those days in Aberdeen, but he heard a
little about them from Elspeth. Tommy had not excused himself to
Elspeth, he had let her do as she liked with his head (this was a great
treat to her), and while it lay pressed against hers, she made remarks
about Aberdeen professors which it would have done them good to hear.
These she repeated to Aaron, who was about to answer roughly, and then
suddenly put her on his knee instead.

"They didna ask the right questions," she told him, and when the warper
asked if Tommy had said so, she declared that he had refused to say a
word against them, which seemed to her to cover him with glory. "But he
doubted they would make that mistake afore he