im! Bobby never needed a second lesson. At
Silver Mills and Canon Mills he came out and trotted warily around the
dam. Where the gorge widened to a valley toward the sea they all climbed
up to Leith Walk, that ran to the harbor, and came out to a wonder-world
of water-craft anchored in the Firth. Each boy picked out his ship to go
adventuring.

"I'm gangin' to Norway!"

Geordie was scornful. "Hoots, ye tame pussies. Ye're fleid o' gettin'
yer feet wat. I'll be rinnin' aff to be a pirate. Come awa' doon."

They followed the leader along shore and boarded an abandoned and
evil-smelling fishingboat. There they ran up a ragged jacket for a black
flag. But sailing a stranded craft palled presently.

"Nae, I'm gangin' to be a Crusoe. Preserve me! If there's no' a futprint
i' the sand Bobby's ma sma' man Friday."

Away they ran southward to find a castaway's shelter in a hollow on the
golf links. Soon this was transformed into a wrecker's den, and
then into the hiding-place of a harried Covenanter fleeing religious
persecution. Daring things to do swarmed in upon their minds, for
Edinburgh laddies live in a city of romantic history, of soldiers, of
near-by mountains, and of sea rovings. No adventure served them five
minutes, and Bobby was in every one. Ah, lucky Bobby, to have such gay
playfellows on a sunny afternoon and under foot the open country!

And fortunate laddies to have such a merry rascal of a wee dog with
them! To the mile they ran, Bobby went five, scampering in wide circles
and barking and louping at butterflies and whaups. He made a detour to
the right to yelp saucily at the red-coated sentry who paced before the
Gothic gateway to the deserted Palace of Holyrood, and as far to the
left to harry the hoofs of a regiment of cavalry drilling before the
barracks at Piershill. He raced on ahead and swam out to scatter the
fleet of swan sailing or the blue mirror of Duddingston Loch.

The tired boys lay blissfully up the sunny side of Arthur's Seat in
a thicket of hazel while Geordie carried out a daring plan for which
privacy was needed. Bobby was solemnly arraigned before a court on the
charge of being a seditious Covenanting meenister, and was required to
take the oath of loyalty to English King and Church on pain of being
hanged in the Grassmarket. The oath had been duly written out on paper
and greased with mutton tallow to make it more palatable. Bobby licked
the fat off with relish. Then he took the pape