e felt,
to see the suggestive round of Simpson's waistcoat, down yonder at the
porch. Simpson, the swine! He had made short work o' _him_!

Ere the last of the carts had issued from the yard at the House with the
Green Shutters the foremost was already near the Red Lion. Gourlay swore
beneath his breath when Miss Toddle--described in the local records as
"a spinster of independent means"--came fluttering out with a silly
little parcel to accost one of the carriers. Did the auld fool mean to
stop Andy Gow about _her_ petty affairs, and thus break the line of
carts on the only morning they had ever been able to go down the brae
together? But no. Andy tossed her parcel carelessly up among his other
packages, and left her bawling instructions from the gutter, with a
portentous shaking of her corkscrew curls. Gourlay's men took their cue
from their master, and were contemptuous of Barbie, most unchivalrous
scorners of its old maids.

Gourlay was pleased with Andy for snubbing Sandy Toddle's sister. When
he and Elshie Hogg reached the Cross they would have to break off from
the rest to complete their loads; but they had been down Main Street
over night as usual picking up their commissions, and until they reached
the Bend o' the Brae it was unlikely that any business should arrest
them now. Gourlay hoped that it might be so; and he had his desire, for,
with the exception of Miss Toddle, no customer appeared. The teams went
slowly down the steep side of the Square in an unbroken line, and slowly
down the street leading from its near corner. On the slope the horses
were unable to go fast--being forced to stell themselves back against
the heavy propulsion of the carts behind; and thus the procession
endured for a length of time worthy its surpassing greatness. When it
disappeared round the Bend o' the Brae the watching bodies disappeared
too; the event of the day had passed, and vacancy resumed her reign. The
street and the Square lay empty to the morning sun. Gourlay alone stood
idly at his gate, lapped in his own satisfaction.

It had been a big morning, he felt. It was the first time for many a
year that all his men, quarrymen and carriers, carters of cheese and
carters of grain, had led their teams down the brae together in the full
view of his rivals. "I hope they liked it!" he thought, and he nodded
several times at the town beneath his feet, with a slow up-and-down
motion of the head, like a man nodding grimly to his be