, begged, and walked on
his hind legs. He even permitted a pair of thin little arms to come near
strangling him, in an excess of affection. Then he wagged his tail and
lolled his tongue to show that he was friendly, and trotted away about
his business. Tammy took an oat-cake from his pocket to nibble, and
began a conversation with Mistress Jeanie.

"I broucht a picnic wi' me."

"Did ye, noo? An' hoo did ye ken aboot picnics, laddie?"

"Maister Traill was tellin' Ailie an' me. There's ilka thing to mak'
a picnic i' the kirkyaird. They couldna mak' my legs gude i' the
infairmary, but I'm gangin' to Heriot's. I'll juist hae to airn ma
leevin' wi' ma heid, an' no' remember aboot ma legs, ava. Is he no' a
bonny doggie?"

"Ay, he's bonny. An' ye're a braw laddie no' to fash yersel' aboot what
canna be helped."

The wifie took his ragged jacket and mended it, dropped a tear in an
impossible hole, and a ha'penny in the one good pocket. And by and by
the pale laddie slept there among the bright graves, in the sun. After
another false alarm from the gate she asked her gude-mon, as she had
asked many times before:

"What'll ye do, Jamie, when the meenister kens aboot Bobby, an' ca's ye
up afore kirk sessions for brakin' the rule?"

"We wullna cross the brig till we come to the burn, woman," he
invariably answered, with assumed unconcern. Well he knew that the
bridge might be down and the stream in flood when he came to it. But
Mr. Traill was a member of Greyfriars auld kirk, too, and a companion in
guilt, and Mr. Brown relied not a little on the landlord's fertile mind
and daring tongue. And he relied on useful, well-behaving Bobby to plead
his own cause.

"There's nae denyin' the doggie is takin' in 'is ways. He's had twa
gude hames fair thrown at 'is heid, but the sperity bit keeps to 'is ain
mind. An' syne he's usefu', an' hauds 'is gab by the ordinar'." He often
reinforced his inclination with some such argument.

With all their caution, discovery was always imminent. The kirkyard was
long and narrow and on rising levels, and it was cut almost across by
the low mass of the two kirks, so that many things might be going on at
one end that could not be seen from the other. On this Saturday noon,
when the Heriot boys were let out for the half-holiday, Mr. Brown
kept an eye on them until those who lived outside had dispersed. When
Mistress Jeanie tucked her knitting-needles in her belt, and went up
to the lodge to put t