"This!" shrilled Mrs. Gourlay, who had recovered her breath again--"this! Look at him there, the muckle slabber," and she pointed to Gilmour, who was standing with a red-lowering, downcast face, "look at him! A man of that size to even himsell to a wean!" "He deserved a' he got," said Gilmour sullenly. "His mother spoils him, at ony rate. And I'm damned if the best Gourlay that ever dirtied leather's gaun to trample owre _me_." Gourlay jumped round with a quick start of the whole body. For a full minute he held Gilmour in the middle of his steady glower. "Walk," he said, pointing to the gate. "Oh, I'll walk," bawled Gilmour, screaming now that anger gave him courage. "Gie me time to get _my_ kist, and I'll walk mighty quick. And damned glad I'll be to get redd o' you and your hoose. The Hoose wi' the Green Shutters," he laughed, "hi, hi, hi!--the Hoose wi' the Green Shutters!" Gourlay went slowly up to him, opening his eyes on him black and wide. "You swine!" he said, with quiet vehemence; "for damned little I would kill ye wi' a glower!" Gilmour shrank from the blaze in his eyes. "Oh, dinna be fee-ee-ared," said Gourlay quietly, "dinna be fee-ee-ared. I wouldn't dirty my hand on 'ee! But get your bit kist, and I'll see ye off the premises. Suspeecious characters are worth the watching." "Suspeecious!" stuttered Gilmour, "suspeecious! Wh-wh-whan was I ever suspeecious? I'll have the law of ye for that. I'll make ye answer for your wor-rds." "Imphm!" said Gourlay. "In the meantime, look slippy wi' that bit box o' yours. I don't like daft folk about _my_ hoose." "There'll be dafter folk as me in your hoose yet," spluttered Gilmour angrily, as he turned away. He went up to the garret where he slept and brought down his trunk. As he passed through the scullery, bowed beneath the clumsy burden on his left shoulder, John, recovered from his sobbing, mocked at him. "Hay-ay-ay," he said, in throaty derision, "my faither's the boy for ye. Yon was the way to put ye down!" FOOTNOTES: [1] _Browdened._ A Scot devoted to his children is said to be "browdened on his bairns." [2] _Thowless_, weak, useless. CHAPTER V.