he dinner over the fire, the caretaker went down
toward Candlemakers Row to trim the grass about the martyrs' monument.
Bobby dutifully trotted at his heels. Almost immediately a half-dozen
laddies, led by Geordie Ross and Sandy McGregor, scaled the wall from
Heriot's grounds and stepped down into the kirkyard, that lay piled
within nearly to the top. They had a perfectly legitimate errand there,
but no mission is to be approached directly by romantic boyhood.

"Hist!" was the warning, and the innocent invaders, feeling delightfully
lawless, stole over and stormed the marble castle, where "Bluidy"
McKenzie slept uneasily against judgment day. Light-hearted lads can do
daring deeds on a sunny day that would freeze their blood on a dark and
stormy night. So now Geordie climbed nonchalantly to a seat over the old
persecutor, crossed his stout, bare legs, filled an imaginary pipe, and
rattled the three farthings in his pocket.

"I'm 'Jinglin' Geordie' Heriot," he announced.

"I'll show ye hoo a prood goldsmith ance smoked wi' a'." Then, jauntily:
"Sandy, gie a crack to 'Bluidy' McKenzie's door an' daur the auld hornie
to come oot."

The deed was done amid breathless apprehensions, but nothing disturbed
the silence of the May noon except the lark that sprang at their feet
and soared singing into the blue. It was Sandy who presently whistled
like a blackbird to attract the attention of Bobby.

There were no blackbirds in the kirkyard, and Bobby understood the
signal. He scampered up at once and dashed around the kirk, all
excitement, for he had had many adventures with the Heriot boys at
skating and hockey on Duddingston Lock in the winter, and tramps over
the country and out to Leith harbor in the spring. The laddies prowled
along the upper wall of the kirks, opened and shut the wicket, to give
the caretaker the idea that they had come in decorously by the gate, and
went down to ask him, with due respect and humility, if they could take
Bobby out for the afternoon. They were going to mark the places where
wild flowers might be had, to decorate "Jinglin' Geordie's" portrait,
statue and tomb at the school on Founder's Day. Mr. Brown considered
them with a glower that made the boys nudge each other knowingly.
"Saturday isna the day for 'im to be gaen aboot. He aye has a washin'
an' a groomin' to mak' 'im fit for the Sabbath. An', by the leuk o' ye,
ye'd be nane the waur for soap an' water yer ainsel's."

"We'll gie 'im 'i