busy unloosing packages, "as haun me doun my trunk."

"No trunk of yours here, sir," said the guard. "You'll have sent it away
to Glasgow with the boy."

"No, no," replied Johnny, sadly perplexed by this new misfortune. "I
sent it wi' the lass to the inn half an hour before I gaed mysel."

"Oh, then, in that case," said the guard, "ten to one it's away to
Dumfries, and not to Glasgow."

And truly such was the fact. The girl, a fresh-caught country lass, had
thrown it on the first coach she found, saying her master would
immediately follow--and that happened to be the Dumfries one. Here,
then, was Johnny safely arrived himself, indeed, at Edinburgh; but his
son was gone to Glasgow, and his trunk to Dumfries--all with the
greatest precision imaginable. Next day, Johnny Armstrong, being
extremely uneasy about his boy, started for Glasgow on board of one of
the canal passage boats; while the lad, being equally uneasy about his
father, and, moreover, ill at ease on sundry other accounts, did
precisely the same thing with the difference of direction--that is, he
started for Edinburgh by a similar conveyance; and so well timed had
each of their respective departures been, that, without knowing it, they
passed each other exactly halfway between the two cities. On arriving at
Glasgow, Johnny Armstrong could not, for a long while, discover any
trace of his son; but at length succeeded in tracking him to the canal
boat--which led him rightly to conclude that he had proceeded to
Edinburgh. On coming to this conclusion, Johnny again started for the
metropolis, where he safely arrived about two hours after his son had
left it for home, whither, finding no trace of his father in Edinburgh,
he had wisely directed his steps. Johnny Armstrong, now greatly
distressed about the object of his paternal solicitude, whom he vainly
sought up and down the city, at last also bent his way homewards,
thinking, what was true, that the boy might have gone home; and there
indeed he found him. Thus nearly a week had been spent, and that in
almost constant travel, and Johnny found himself precisely at the point
from which he had set out. However, in three days, after having, in the
meantime, recovered his trunk, he again set out on his travels to
Brechin; for his courage was not in the least abated by what had
happened; but on this occasion unaccompanied by his son, as he would not
again run the risk of losing him, or of exposing himself to that
dis