ng from
Bauldie and a reasonable fear of consequences. The Seminary circle was
reinforced by all the message-boys within sight, and several ladies who
were coming home from the shops. Two maiden ladies, against whose
railings Peter had been propped in the hour of his distress, came
out--their hearts full of compassion and their hands of remedies. As
Jock and Bauldie did not consider it safe that Peter should be moved at
once, one maiden lady placed a cushion between his head and the
railings, while the other chafed his forehead with scent, and both
insisted that Dr. Manley should be sent for at once. This was the first
suggestion which seemed to have any effect on Peter, for it would not at
all have suited his plans that that matter-of-fact physician should
have arrived on the spot. And when a bottle of ferocious smelling-salts
was held to the patient's nose, Speug showed signs of returning
consciousness.

"Poor dear!" said one lady; "what a mercy he wasn't killed. A blow
behind the ear is often fatal. He's coming round nicely. The colour is
returning to his cheeks. Bailie MacConachie, did you say?" as Jock
Howieson unfolded to the ladies in simple, straightforward, truthful
words the story of the murderous attack. "I can't believe that any man
would so abuse a poor helpless child." (At this moment Peter, who had
been reconnoitring the whole scene through his half-closed eyes, seized
the opportunity to wink to the mourners with such irresistible effect as
to prove once again the close connection between tears and laughter.)
"And him a magistrate," concluded the sympathetic female. "He ought to
be ashamed of himself; but if I were the laddie's friends, I would make
the Bailie hear about it on the deaf side of his head."

[Illustration: "A BOTTLE OF FEROCIOUS SMELLING-SALTS WAS HELD TO THE
PATIENT'S NOSE."]

Upon a sign from Speug, who was getting a little weary of inaction, he
was helped to his feet, and after one or two staggers seemed to come to
himself, and submitted with agreeable humour to the attention of his
friends, who dusted him from head to foot, under the superintendence of
the ladies and to the huge delight of the message-boys, who were now
entering into the meaning of the scene. His bonnet, which had been
thoughtfully used as a water-can, was placed wrong end foremost upon his
head, but Peter resisted the proposal to tie up his head in Bauldie's
handkerchief, partly because there was a limit even to his