Word had been left at all the inns and carting offices about both
markets for the tenant of Cauldbrae farm to call at Mr. Traill's
place for Bobby. The man appeared Wednesday afternoon, driving a big
Clydesdale horse to a stout farm cart. The low-ceiled dining-room
suddenly shrank about the big-boned, long legged hill man. The fact
embarrassed him, as did also a voice cultivated out of all proportion to
town houses, by shouting to dogs and shepherds on windy shoulders of the
Pentlands.
“Hae ye got the dog wi' ye?”
Mr. Train pointed to Bobby, deep in a blissful, after dinner nap under
the settle.
The farmer breathed a sigh of relief, sat at a table, and ate a
frugal meal of bread and cheese. As roughly dressed as Auld Jock, in
a metal-buttoned greatcoat of hodden gray, a woolen bonnet, and the
shepherd's twofold plaid, he was a different species of human being
altogether. A long, lean, sinewy man of early middle age, he had a
smooth-shaven, bony jaw, far-seeing gray eyes under furzy brows, and a
shock of auburn hair. When he spoke, it was to give bits out of his own
experience.
“Thae terriers are usefu' eneugh on an ordinar' fairm an' i' the toon to
keep awa' the vermin, but I wadna gie a twa-penny-bit for ane o' them on
a sheep-fairm. There's a wee lassie at Cauldbrae wha wants Bobby for a
pet. It wasna richt for Auld Jock to win 'im awa' frae the bairn.”
Mr. Traill's hand was lifted in rebuke. “Speak nae ill, man; Auld Jock's
dead.”
The farmer's ruddy face blanched and he dropped his knife. “He's no'
buried so sane?”
“Ay, he's buried four days since in Greyfriars kirkyard, and Bobby has
slept every night on the auld man's grave.”
“I'll juist tak' a leuk at the grave, moil, gin ye'll hae an ee on the
dog.”
Mr. Traill cautioned him not to let the caretaker know that Bobby had
continued to sleep in the kirkyard, after having been put out twice. The
farmer was back in ten minutes, with a canny face that defied reading.
He lighted his short Dublin pipe and smoked it out before he spoke
again.
“It's ower grand for a puir auld shepherd body to be buried i'
Greyfriars.”
“No' so grand as heaven, I'm thinking.” Mr. Traill's response was dry.
“Ay, an' we're a' coontin' on gangin' there; but it's a prood thing to
hae yer banes put awa' in Greyfriars, ance ye're through wi' 'em!”
“Nae doubt the gude auld man would rather be alive on the Pentland braes
than dead in Greyfriars.”
“Ay,” the farmer admitted. “He was fair fond o' the hills, an' no'
likin' the toon. An', moil, he was a wonder wi' the lambs. He'd gang wi'
a collie ower miles o' country in roarin' weather, an' he'd aye fetch
the lost sheep hame. The auld moil was nane so weel furnished i' the
heid, but bairnies and beasts were unco' fond o' 'im. It wasna his fau't
that Bobby was aye at his heels. The lassie wad 'a' been after'im, gin
'er mither had permeeted it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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