ey were sobered, however, when Mr. Traill appeared,
looking very grand in his Sabbath clothes. He inspected Bobby all over
with anxious scrutiny, and gave each of the bairns a threepenny-bit,
but he had no blithe greeting for them. Much preoccupied, he went off at
once, with the animated little muff of a dog at his heels. In truth, Mr.
Traill was thinking about how he might best plead Bobby's cause with the
Lord Provost. The note that was handed him, on leaving the Burgh court
the day before, had read:

"Meet me at the Regent's Tomb in St. Giles at eight o'clock in the
morning, and bring the wee Highlander with you.--Glenormiston."

On the first reading the landlord's spirits had risen, out of all
proportion to the cause, owing to his previous depression. But, after
all, the appointment had no official character, since the Regent's Tomb
in St. Giles had long been a sort of town pump for the retailing of
gossip and for the transaction of trifling affairs of all sorts. The
fate of this little dog was a small matter, indeed, and so it might be
thought fitting, by the powers that be, that it should be decided at the
Regent's Tomb rather than in the Burgh court.

To the children, who watched from the kirkyard gate until Mr. Traill and
Bobby were hidden by the buildings on the bridge, it was no' canny. The
busy landlord lived mostly in shirt-sleeves and big white apron, ready
to lend a hand in the rush hours, and he never was known to put on
his black coat and tall hat on a week-day, except to attend a funeral.
However, there was the day's work to be done. Tammy had a lesson
still to get, and returned to the kirkyard, and Ailie ran up to the
dining-rooms. On the step she collided with a red headed, freckle-faced
young man who asked for Mr. Traill.

"He isna here." The shy lassie was made almost speechless by
recognizing, in this neat, well-spoken clerk, an old Heriot boy, once as
poor as herself.

"Do you wark for him, lassie? Weel, do you know how he cam' out in the
Burgh court about the bit dog?"

There was only one "bit dog" in the world to Ailie. Wild eyed with alarm
at mention of the Burgh court, in connection with that beloved little
pet, she stammered: "It's--it's--no' a coort he gaed to. Maister
Traill's tak'n Bobby awa' to a braw kirk."

Sandy nodded his head. "Ay, that would be the police office in St.
Giles. Lassie, tell Mr. Traill I sent the Lord Provost, and if he's
needing a witness to ca' on Sandy McGre