llow us across the meadow, and, my
word, she's back to the Bailie with a fine story." "He's sweatin' the
now for fear he be taken up for assault, and maybe manslaughter." "What
w-would you say, Peter, just to die altogether, and we would gi-give you
an A1 funeral? If you'll just be g-good-natured and do it, I'll write
your l-life myself. It's perfectly sc-scrummageous." And then Peter fell
on Nestie, and Howieson on Bauldie, and they rejoiced together once more
in the straw.

"You're 'avin' an 'igh 'ole time in 'ere, young gentlemen," and Mr.
McGuffie's English groom looked down on the boys; "but you're missin'
the Derby, that's what you are. Hold Pompous has come 'isself, and if he
ain't been hexplainin' to the master 'ow he 'appened to knock Speug
down. He's out o' breath now, and the master he's took up the runnin',
and--my eye and Betty Martin--ain't he talkin'! Not cussin'--no, not one
swear word has he let go. Young gentlemen, upon my Alfred David, if the
master ain't preachin' for all the world as if he was a blessed beak on
the Bench and old Pompous was a 'habit and repute.' It's as good as a
circus; you just go and 'ear 'im," and in exactly one and a quarter
seconds the boys were an unseen audience when Mr. Peter McGuffie senior
gave his opinion of the conduct of Bailie MacConachie, which he had been
doing already for some time with much effect.

"Imitatin' ye, was he, and followin' ye along the street, walkin' as ye
walk, and so ye knocked him down in open day? Why should he not be doing
as ye did? Is yir walk protected by law, that nobody dare step the same
way on the streets of Muirtown? Answer me that, if ye please. Bailies
are pretty high and mighty in this town, they are; but I never heard yet
that the street belonged to them, and that a laddie was in danger of
death if he followed in their steps. That would be a fine pass. Aren't
boys always imitatin' somebody? Why, you stupid old fool, half the
laddies in this district try to imitate me; and, as sure as ye're
standing there, I've seen half a dozen of them, each one with a straw in
his mouth, and the bit legs of him straddled, and his bonnet on the side
of his head, and the belly of him stuck out like a pillow, just the
eemage of myself. What would ye think of me if I knockit one of them
down, ye double-distilled old fool?

"I'm astonished at ye, for ye might be pleased to think that the
laddies, instead of copying a horsedealer, are trying to be magis