wledge and general Bohemianism, was the first
thing which cheered the heart of Speug. Those slippers would tolerate no
problems from Euclid and would laugh a cane to scorn. Where did he ever
get those trousers, and from whose hands did they originally come,
baggy at the knee and loose everywhere, stained with garden mould and
torn with garden bushes?

[Illustration: "SPEUG WAS DRAGGED ALONG THE WALK."]

Without question it was a warm night in that sheltered place on the side
of the hill; but would any person believe that the master of
mathematics, besides writing and arithmetic, in Muirtown Seminary, was
going about in his garden, and before the eyes of two of his pupils,
without the vestige of a waistcoat. Speug now was braced for wonders,
but even he was startled with Bulldog's jacket, which seemed of earlier
age than the trousers, with which it had no connexion in colour. It may
once have had four buttons, but only two were left now; there was a tear
in its side that must have been made by a nail in the garden wall, the
handle of a hammer projected from one pocket, and a pruning-knife from
the other. And if there was not a pipe in Bulldog's mouth, stuck in the
side of his cheek, "as sure as death!" There was a knife in his hand,
with six blades and a corkscrew and a gimlet and the thing for taking
the stones out of a horse's hoof--oath again repeated--and Bulldog was
trying the edge of the biggest blade upon his finger. Speug, now
ascending from height to height, was not surprised to see no necktie,
and would have been prepared to see no collar. He had now even a wild
hope that when he reached Bulldog's head it might be crowned with a
Highland bonnet, minus the tails; but instead thereof there was a hat,
possibly once a wide-awake, so bashed, and shapeless, and discoloured,
and worn so rakishly, partly on the back and partly on the side of his
head, that Speug was inwardly satisfied, and knew that no evil could
befall him in that garden.

"Speug, my mannie, how are ye?" said this amazing figure. "Ye've been
long of coming. There's something like a knife, eh!" and Bulldog opened
up the whole concern and challenged Speug to produce his knife, which
was not so bad after all, for it had six departments, and one of them
was a file, which was wanting in Bulldog's.

"Show the master your peerie, Speug," said Nestie. "It's split more tops
than any one in the school; it's a r-ripper," and Nestie exhibited its
deadly steel