'It hasna half tail eneuch,' cried Robert. 'It's queer 'at things winna
gang up ohn hauden them doon. Pu' a guid han'fu' o' clover, Shargar.
She's had her fa', an' noo she'll gang up a' richt. She's nane the waur
o' 't.'
Upon the next attempt, the kite rose triumphantly. But just as it
reached the length of the string it shot into a faster current of air,
and Robert found himself first dragged along in spite of his efforts,
and then lifted from his feet. After carrying him a few yards, the
dragon broke its string, dropped him in a ditch, and, drifting away,
went fluttering and waggling downwards in the distance.
'Luik whaur she gangs, Shargar,' cried Robert, from the ditch.
Experience coming to his aid, Shargar took landmarks of the direction in
which it went; and ere long they found it with its tail entangled in the
topmost branches of a hawthorn tree, and its head beating the ground at
its foot. It was at once agreed that they would not fly it again till
they got some stronger string.
Having heard the adventure, Mr. Lammie produced a shilling from the
pocket of his corduroys, and gave it to Robert to spend upon the needful
string. He resolved to go to the town the next morning and make a grand
purchase of the same. During the afternoon he roamed about the farm
with his hands in his pockets, revolving if not many memories, yet
many questions, while Shargar followed like a pup at the heels of
Miss Lammie, to whom, during his former visit, he had become greatly
attached.
In the evening, resolved to make a confidant of Mr. Lammie, and indeed
to cast himself upon the kindness of the household generally, Robert
went up to his room to release his violin from its prison of brown
paper. What was his dismay to find--not his bonny leddy, but her poor
cousin, the soutar's auld wife! It was too bad. Dooble Sanny indeed!
He first stared, then went into a rage, and then came out of it to go
into a resolution. He replaced the unwelcome fiddle in the parcel, and
came down-stairs gloomy and still wrathful, but silent. The evening
passed over, and the inhabitants of the farmhouse went early to bed.
Robert tossed about fuming on his. He had not undressed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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