petition, otherwise he would never have heard of
it till the day of departure arrived, and would thus have lost all the
delights of anticipation. In frantic effort to control his ecstasy, he
sped to the garret, and with trembling hands tied the second joint of
the day to the tail of the dragon--the first time he had ever broken the
law of its accretion. Once broken, that law was henceforth an object of
scorn, and the tail grew with frightful rapidity. It was indeed a great
dragon. And none of the paltry fields about Rothieden should be honoured
with its first flight, but from Bodyfauld should the majestic child of
earth ascend into the regions of upper air.

My reader may here be tempted to remind me that Robert had been only too
glad to return to Rothieden from his former visit. But I must in my turn
remind him that the circumstances were changed. In the first place, the
fiddle was substituted for grannie; and in the second, the dragon for
the school.

The making of this dragon was a happy thing for Shargar, and a yet
happier thing for Robert, in that it introduced again for a time some
community of interest between them. Shargar was happier than he had been
for many a day because Robert used him; and Robert was yet happier than
Shargar in that his conscience, which had reproached him for his neglect
of him, was now silent. But not even his dragon had turned aside his
attentions from his violin; and many were the consultations between the
boys as to how best she might be transported to Bodyfauld, where endless
opportunities of holding communion with her would not be wanting. The
difficulty was only how to get her clear of Rothieden.

The play commenced on a Saturday; but not till the Monday were they
to be set at liberty. Wearily the hours of mental labour and bodily
torpidity which the Scotch called the Sabbath passed away, and at length
the millennial morning dawned. Robert and Shargar were up before
the sun. But strenuous were the efforts they made to suppress all
indications of excitement, lest grannie, fearing the immoral influence
of gladness, should give orders to delay their departure for an awfully
indefinite period, which might be an hour, a day, or even a week.
Horrible conception! Their behaviour was so decorous that not even a
hinted threat escaped the lips of Mrs. Falconer.

They set out three hours before noon, carrying the great kite, and
Robert's school bag, of green baize, full of sundries: a cart