“‘Mud-pies!’ cries her faither in horror, lookin’ roond to see that
naebody heard her. ‘Wheesh! Maggie, it wadna look nice to see the like
o’ you makin’ mud-pies. Ye havena the claes for’t. Beside, I’m tellt
they’re no’ the go nooadays at a’.
“‘Weel,’ says she at that, ‘I think I’ll hae a hairy-heided lion.’
“‘Hairy-heided lion. Right!’ says Mr Carnegie. ‘Ye’ll get that, my wee
lassie,” and cries doon the turret stair to the kitchen for his No. 9
secretary.
“The No. 9 secretary comes up in his shirt sleeves, chewin’ blot-sheet
and dichting the ink aff his elbows.
“‘Whit are ye thrang at the noo?’ asks Mr Carnegie as nice as onything
to him, though he’s only a kind o’ a workin’ man.
“‘Sendin’ aff the week’s orders for new kirk organs,’ says the No. 9
secretary, ‘and it’ll tak’ us till Wednesday.’
“‘Where’s a’ the rest o’ my secretaries?’ asks Mr Carnegie.
“‘Half o’ them’s makin’ oot cheques for new leebraries up and doon the
country, and the ither halfs oot in the back-coort burning letters frae
weedows wi’ nineteen weans, nane o’ them daein’ for themsel’s, and frae
men that were dacent and steady a’ their days, but had awfu’ bad luck.’
“‘If it gangs on like this we’ll hae to put ye on the night-shift,’ says
Mr Carnegie. ‘It’s comin’ to’t when I hae to write my ain letters. I’ll
be expected to write my ain books next. But I’ll no’ dae onything o’ the
kind. Jist you telegraph to India, or Africa, or Japan, or wherever the
hairy-heided lions comes frae, and tell them to send wee Maggie ane o’
the very best at 50 per cent aff for cash.’
“Early ae mornin’ some weeks efter that, when the steam-hooter for
wakenin’ the secretaries starts howlin’ at five o’clock, Mr Carnegie
comes doon stair and sees the hairy-heided lion in a crate bein’ pit
aff a lorry. He has it wheeled into the wee lassie when she’s at her
breakfast.
“‘Let it oot,’ she says; ‘I want to play wi’t.’
“‘Ye wee fuiter!’ he says, lauchin’ like onything, ‘ye canna get playin’
wi’t oot o’ the cage, but ye’ll can get feedin’t wi’ sultana-cake.’
“But that disna suit wee Maggie, and she jist tells him to send it awa’
to the Bronx Zoo in New York.
“‘Bronx Zoo. Right!’ says her paw, and cries on his No. 22 secretary to
send it aff wi’ the parcel post at yince.
“‘That minds me,’ he says, ‘there’s a cryin’ heed for hairy-heided lions
all over Europe and the United States. The moral and educative influence
o’ the common or bald-heided lion is of no account. Noo that maist o’
the kirks has twa organs apiece, and there’s a leebrary in every clachan
in the country, I must think o’ some ither wye o’ gettin’ rid o’ this
cursed wealth. It was rale’ cute o’ you, Maggie, to think o’t; I’ll pay
half the price o’ a hairy-heided lion for every toon in the country wi’
a population o’ over five hundred that can mak’ up the ither half by
public subscription.’
“And then the wee lassie says she canna tak’ her parridge.
“‘Whit for no’?’ he asks her, anxious-like. ‘Are they no guid?’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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