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 Grassmarket."

"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."

"I'm very sure of that. Well, the lady built a new tenement with plenty
of room and light and air, and a market so they can get better food more
cheaply, and a large church, that is also a kind of school where big
and little people can learn many things. She gives the children of
the neighborhood a Christmas dinner and a gay tree, and she strips the
hedges of Holly Lodge for them, and then she takes Peter and Prince,
and Cocky the parrot, to help along the fun, and she tells her newest
stories. Next Christmas she means to tell the story of Greyfriars Bobby,
and how all his little Scotch friends are better-behaving and cleaner
and happier because they have that wee dog to love."

"Ilka body lo'es Bobby. He wasna ever mistreatet or neglectet," said
Ailie, thoughtfully.

"Oh--my--dear! That's the very best part of the story!" The Grand Leddy
had a shining look.

The rain had ceased and the sun come out, and the children began to be
called away. There was quite a little ceremony of lingering leave-taking
with the lady and with Bobby, and while this was going on Ailie had a
"sairious" confidence for her old playfellow.

"Tammy, as the leddy says, Bobby's gettin' auld. I ken whaur's a